Some students have raised concerns over integrity of results
Over 1,000 students may drop out of the education system after failing to secure requisite marks in the national examinations to proceed to the next level.
Some students allege they received the wrong grades, but the examiner the National Examination and School Inspection (Nesa) says the process of marking is thorough and does not leave room for errors.
Over 1,000 students from across the country filed complaints with NESA, disputing the results of the exams that they were required to pass to proceed to advanced secondary and TVET schools.
This is the highest complaints the examiner has recived in its history.
The results of over 65,000 students who sat the exams were announced on November 15.
Students who failed to score pass marks in at least three principal courses in the final secondary school national exams will not advance to any public and some private universities in the country.
Most students claimed that the marks given were wrong. In some cases, the whole class failed. Students say they find it suspicious that a whole class scored the same marks.
“For example, my entire class of over 40 students failed the Kinyarwanda exam with an F. I find it hard to believe that 40 Rwandan students fail Kinyarwanda at once,” said Sylvia Muhire, a student in Nyagatare.
However, students admit they expected to score lower marks than past years due to disruption to education calendar by the Covid-19 pandemic.
They now want NESA to remark exam booklets. NESA says it is not allowed.
“The last academic year was tough, but I was confident I would pass at least the required three courses. I was doing well in school. Now there is nothing I can do. I will probably have to repeat,” Dieudonne Gashugi, a Computer Science student at St Peter College in Muhanga district.
NESA’s director-general Dr Bernard Bahati said exam booklets are marked seven times by different teachers, who are qualified for grading particular subjects.
“It is always expected that complaints will be filed after the results are announced. But the risk of making mistakes while grading is almost non-existent.
Teachers who grade the exams are qualified and facilitated enough to do a good job...” Dr Bahati said. He added that although the complaints were many this year, over 98 percent of students who sat for the exam passed.
However, in October, teachers who had been qualified to grade national exams were complaining that their payment was delayed by weeks.
Observers say it might have affected the grading outcome. Peruth Nduwayo, whose daughter failed to secure enough aggregate to pass, told Rwanda Today that as far as her income is concerned, repeating class is not an option currently. “She might have to wait until my business is fully recovered,” Nduwayo, who owns a tailoring shop, said.
In the light of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on families and their income, repeating classes or going to private universities is not seen as an option. Parents are worried that the pandemic came with an increase in school fees and repeating classes is not convenient.