School exam statistics over the years

Cece Primary School is a school for pupils from families with HIV, disabilities and orphans.  These are the most stigmatized and marginalized sector of society in Nimule.  The school opened in June 2015 with only one level, Primary 1, divided into two groups.  From then on each year has seen new classes.  In 2016 a nursery class and Primary 2 were added.  In 2017 Primary 3 started.  In 2018 Primary 4 followed, and so on.  Currently we have our first Primary 7 class.  Next year (2023) will be our first year as a full primary school, with a Primary 8 class.

There are no statistics on the first two years (2015 and 2016) because the computer and backup drive were stolen in 2016. 

From 2017 until 2018 the pass and failure statistics were close, but progressively improved, ending in a good pass rate (60% in 2017 and 73% in 2018).  These results reflect the fact that all pupils were at the early stages of learning at that time.

From 2019 the pass rate has always exceeded the failure rate for the school as a whole.  

In 2020 the school was closed during the first term and did not reopen until the next academic year due to Covid.  Therefore there are no exam statistics and the pupils completely missed out on their education for over one year.  Some pupils dropped out.

In spite of the missing year of schooling, pupils still had their best ever exam pass rates for a first term exam at the end of the first term of 2021.  They were helped by the fact that they repeated the previous year, without being promoted.  This was necessary as they had attended only a few weeks of school at the time of closure.

The first term of 2022 has been a very difficult one, with two major closures due to a poor security situation.  The number of pupils sitting the exam was fewer than normal as many pupils have not returned after fleeing to Uganda – 166 were present out of a school roll of 276.  Even so, for the first time in the school’s history, the 1st term exam results are identical to the end of year results for 2021 instead of falling back. 

Challenges

Pupils revising

Because of the unstable situation of South Sudan, we have always faced a high pupil turnover, with new pupils joining and old ones leaving.  As most newcomers are coming from schools which have very low standards, especially in literacy, this has led to a policy of giving entrance exams to pupils applying for places at the higher levels (Primary 4 and above).  The vast majority of applicants fail with results of 0% to 5% as they are completely unable to read the exam papers.  It is sad to have to turn them away, but we lack the resources to provide extra help at such a late stage.  If we accepted them, they would be far too far behind their classmates to catch up.  If they were small children, we would place them in low classes, but most are in their late teens.

Another challenge is high teacher turnover and few trained teachers.  We are constantly having to interview new teachers, who interview well and then turn out to be incompetent.  A particular difficulty is recruitment of maths teachers, as mathematics is a general weakness in South Sudan.  The same applies to teachers of literacy.

Conclusion

These steadily improving results have been made possible because of a school policy of ensuring that pupils are in the right class according to their current learning levels.  Where pupils are unable to cope they are put into a lower class so that they can get a solid foundation.  If they are too advanced for their current class, they are promoted so that they can be challenged and will not disrupt the teaching of others in the class through boredom.

The exam papers are produced by the subject teachers for each class and are supposed to reflect what our pupils have been taught.

Literacy is taken very seriously.  A method called Jolly Phonics is used, which is very suitable for a learning environment with few materials.

Classes are no larger than 35, and in several cases in the upper school, from 10 to 20.  This allows teachers to give more time to their students than in other local schools.  The low numbers in the upper school are due to pupils leaving and there being very few suitable pupils to replace them, as mentioned previously.

Next year we will have our first Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) for our Primary 8 class.  That will be our first national exam class, and will show clearly whether or not we are really doing as well as we think we are.  In South Sudan it is not possible to go to secondary school without passing the PLE first, so it is really crucial for the future education of our pupils that they pass.  It is planned to start a secondary department in our school compound to cater for our former primary students.