By Tapeng Michael Ohure
While the world will be celebrating Valentine’s day mid-next month, candidates of primary schools in South Sudan will begin sweating it out in the primary leaving examinations.
Primary 8 leaving examinations are set to begin on February 14 and the candidates and school administrations in the capital Juba have expressed readiness.
Speaking to Juba Echo, most candidates in Juba said they were well prepared for the exercise.
“I’m prepared for all the subjects though I somehow fear Mathematics,” Rebecca Nickson, a candidate from St. Joseph said.
“I have all along been revising alone, and with my teachers.”
Like her, another, candidate in Juba, Bol Lual said he has completed preparations for the exams.
“Nothing will be difficult with those examinations because we are very prepared and I hope I will do well in social studies and science subjects,” Lual told Juba Echo.
While announcing the examination progress this week, the Minister of General Education, Awut Deng Achuil expressed hope that the candidates would be ready to do the exams at their best despite challenges they could have faced.
The headmaster for St. Joseph Primary School in Juba, John Wani said his class of over 100 candidates are more than ready to face the primary leaving examinations.
“In regards to the preparations for the primary leaving examinations, we are prepared,” Wani told Juba Echo.
“So, we are not worried and we are ready for it because all the subjects have been finished.”
South Sudan’s Ministry of General Education says a total of 53,220 candidates will sit for the examinations on the 14, February 2022.
Among the candidates are 31,232 males and 21,988 female candidates.
Ahead of the exams, teachers in Central Equatoria State went on strike over salaries.
But Minister Achuil told reporters in Juba on Thursday that teachers’ salaries for Central Equatoria State who were on strike will be paid.