Education official urges parents to give candidates ample time for revision

JUBA – An education official in Northern Bahr El Ghazal, South Sudan, on Friday encouraged parents to provide conducive environment for their primary eight candidates as they prepare for their examinations.

More than 84,815 candidates, consisting of 45,545 males and 39,269 females, are scheduled to take the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) on Monday nationwide.

The CPE exams are set to occur from November 24 to 29, 2025, followed by the CSE exams from December 1 to 9, 2025.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Friday, Akoon Diing Angok, State Minister of Education advised parents to allow sufficient time for children, especially girls, to prepare for the national examinations starting on Monday.

“I am here to make it public that we have received the examination in boxes and I have ensured that they are locked into the police cells so that they are not tempered with,” Diing.

Diing warned learners against participating in examination malpractices referred to as ‘Machot.’

Machot is a term in the Dinka language that translates to cheating.

“We don’t want malpractices such as “machot” which has been happening and all we want is the intelligence of the pupils and students,” he said.

“Allow them test their understanding and I know our teachers have done their best despite the challenges, so it is time for the learners to attest to what they have learnt.”

Diing said over 20,000 candidates have registered to sit for exams in 80 centers across the state.

He added that the invigilators are expected to perform their duties impartially and refrain from assisting those who encounter difficulties in answering the questions papers.

“I am urging the invigilators to avoid being illicit activity such as working at night to reveal the exam. This is not the thing of the modern time,” he said.

“We want Northern Bahr El Ghazal to showcase the power of education, and this is when we allow our learners to test their understanding without doing something behind the scenes.”

He highlighted the importance of offering assistance to students when necessary, noting that some candidates will be traveling from distant locations to the centers, where they will spend a week before returning to their original homes to wait for their results.

In the past, examinations have been affected by dishonest practices such as “Machot,” a term referring to the malpractice of providing students with prior knowledge of the exam content.

While this has led to students achieving high scores, it has resulted in poor performance in colleges and universities.