The national ministry of education must train the examiners on the right format of setting the national exams. It is sad that the curriculum has been changed but the setting of examination has not changed. Both in the ministry and down in the schools, exams are set in the old way. Memorization is still encouraged. The examiners set exams that demand the students to cram. What the new curriculum teaches and how the exams are set are very parallel. Students still do not know what to do. It is the reason they fail.
The national ministry of education must make sure that the examiners are teachers who are teaching the candidates. I have observed that those setting are people who have been setting exams since 1990s. They are only used to old curriculum. The teachers teaching the students currently must know what to assess from the learners. They must be the ones to set the exams in supervision of the experienced examiners well trained in the new curriculum format of examination setting. This will improve students’ performance.
The national ministry of education must make sure that the materials used are only the new curriculum materials used in schools. I am informing the ministry as a concerned teacher that the new syllabus text books are not used by many teachers. They claim that they are shallow. They still use textbooks from Uganda or Kenya. If it happens that such teachers using foreign books set the national exams, the students of other schools who don’t use such books will fail. Only the new syllabus textbooks must be used.
The national ministry of education must orient the examiners to set standard exams. There is a big problem here! In South Sudan, standard exams are perceived as hard exams. Standard exams instead are exams that can be passed. They are exams that capture everything the learners have learned in class. More education must be given to the examiners to understand standard exams.
Examiners must fight their attitude of failing students to be called a “tough teacher”. Many teachers think they will gain respect if their exams are failed. In South Sudan, a teacher with hard exams is praised and feared by many as a tough teacher. They define a tough teacher as a tough teacher who is more knowledgeable than others. Even learners undermine you if your subject is passed by every student. This is old curriculum ideology.
Every examiner must have the full concept of the new curriculum. The new curriculum is not exam focused. It is life focused. In the schools we teach the students for life. According to the new curriculum, it is not the examination result that shows the learners has learned something. It is only the competencies that the learner has acquired that show the learner has learned something. The new curriculum focuses on understanding than memorization. It is not about the learners having the head knowledge. It is just about the learners having the understood knowledge.
The national ministry of education must know that the new curriculum discourages failures in any form. And if the learners fail, the blame does not go to the learners, it goes to the ministry. Learners are to be made to pass than fail. Learners don’t struggle to pass exams. They only struggle to pass life. Passing is supposed to be obvious. Announcing that eleven thousands and above failed the national exams is a big blow to the ministry. It communicates the national ministry does not do anything as implementing the new curriculum is concerned. It does not coordinate with the schools. “Every learner must pass,” said the new curriculum.
Only the subject teachers teaching currently must mark the national exams. These teachers know what they should mark. Those others mark for money. The period for marking the national exams is termed a period for making money. Every marker goes with a mind-set of marking more papers to make more money. Marking exams does not mean awarding only marks. You are educating the learner.
I have just concluded that those markers mark to meet the deadline. They mark on rush. I got a man who was marking to meet the deadline. He was just crossing the learners’ papers. It was later discovered that he was crossing the correct answers. Marking is a job that demands care and keenness. Every marker must read every answer the learner has given. It must not be mere reading; it must be reading with understanding.
According to the new curriculum, a marking scheme or guide is not a must. If there, must only be a guide. This is unfortunate! All the national exams’ markers follow a dictated marking guide. No, this is a crime! The new curriculum condemns it a thousand times. With examining memorization, marking guide is a must. But with examining understanding, it must never be a must!
The main reason learners fail the national exams is that their understanding is not marked. In the schools, we teach them to construct their ideas. They are taught to think and creatively provide answers to the questions. Talk about CRE, CIT, History, Literature and others. Which answer should you dictate? I am sad that many students fail badly every year. The problem is not the learners. It is the markers. They still promote the old curriculum way of answering exam questions. Learners are taught the new curriculum while the markers are moving on with the old curriculum. We must mark learners’ understanding. We are preparing citizens who will be thinkers.
I have also observed that there is no proper control during the period of examination. Some schools are sent strict security while others are not. Those schools with no proper security will cheat the exams to their learners. It is the reason some schools perform better than other schools. We are killing the future of these learners. These children have a lot of things to do in life. They still have dreams to move to other countries and further their education there. It will be hard for them when they get to those other countries. It is better they are prepared well.
There are a lot of errors in marks entry. I was shocked when one of my students only got 5 marks in Agriculture. His name is Baraka Isa. In first term, he scored “A”. In second term he scored “A” too. How do you imagine such a student scoring only five marks in the national exam? The national ministry must employ only professional computer experts. They must be people who are keen in doing such a delicate work. I believe my student (Baraka) will be allowed to raise his complaint.
The national ministry of education must give enough time for marking. The marking and processing the results cannot be done in a period of two weeks or one month. Students are failing because everything is done on rush. With pressure, many mistakes are committed. Remember these mistakes are very irreversible. Imagine a teacher marking a student wrong for a correct answer, will that be reversed?
The national ministry of education must value the national exams more than anything. Examination is the most important function of a country. We should not play with examination. It must be given the highest respect. Even the minister of education has no right to play with examination. Examination will be supervised from the beginning to the end.
To avoid the delay of marking the national exams, I request the national ministry to charge the students money that will take care of the marking. In some countries, it is not the government paying for marking. The students pay for the marking. We can do it in South Sudan too. It will help us to mark the exams early.
With the delay of the results, many young youth join wrong groups. Young girls go for marriage. That happens because they are idle. Don’t forget, “An idle mind is the devil workshop.” Staying idle will make them lose hope. We are not ready to lose our young people. They are our tomorrow’s human resource. We must take care of their future.
Before I conclude, I insist that the national ministry of education must train the teachers and school administrators on the new curriculum. We have a great curriculum with no oriented human resource to implement. This curriculum can make the education of this country very strong. We can have citizens who are thinkers. We only lack creative people in this country. Train our teachers to embrace our curriculum.
Finally, we must all protect the image of this country. I went to Kenya. They told me I did not get my education in South Sudan. I went to Addis Ababa, I was told the same. Outside there, they don’t believe South Sudan has better education. Let me surprise you, our curriculum is among the best education curriculums in the world. We just need to embrace it. We just need to collectively implement it. The world will fear us. Be kind to the nation.