Primary eight and Senior four candidates will no longer be required to pay examinations fees, the government of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state has announced.
The decision was made after the State Ministry of General Education said it had reduced the fees by half for both public and private school learners sitting for the national examinations.
It further announced that candidates in public secondary schools who were paying SSP 20,000 will pay SSP 14,000, while candidates in public primary schools will pay SSP 10,000.
The decision was, however, reversed by the State Government after parents continued to complaint that the fees were extremely high.
Tong Lual Ayat, Deputy Governor of Northern Bahr El Ghazal state said no parent or learner should pay any fee to sit for their primary or secondary leaving examinations.
“We have cancelled these fees that were released by the Education Ministry because we know the situation we are all in, and for that I feel we can’t afford paying for that amount of money just per student to sit for the exams,” he stated.
Mr. Lual disclosed that the decision to cancel the fees was also influenced by the National Examination Council in Juba.
“I received a letter from the National Examination Council asking us to cancel these exams fees until further notice. So up to now we have not come up with any other decision or how much to charge for the exams,” he said.