Form four exams kick off as 23,000 students write their first paper today

At least 23,000 students are today sitting for the General Secondary Certificate exams, the third since the last government administered exams in 1990.

The ministry of education announced this past week the exams will take place in 77 centres across the states in central and southern Somalia. These are Galmudug, Southwest, Hirshabelle, Jubbaland and Banadir region.

The number of candidates has steadily increased since the first lot in 2015 which saw 7,000 students sit for the final form four exams. 20,000 students sat for last year’s exams.

The secondary schools in the country are largely managed by the private education umbrella organizations. However the government is gradually taking charge with the introduction of joint exams. The ministry of education last week released a new curriculum for primary and secondary schools.

Umbrellas control some 817 schools country wide administering different set of exams based on their respective curricula.