Students and teachers look on NESA examinations to improve performance

By Xaverine CYIZA.

Some students and teachers from the Southern Province say that the new examination preparation strategies by the National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA) have paved way for their academic performance.

The message was delivered by students and teachers at SaintMary’s High School Kiruhura in Huye district, during a nationwide awareness campaign that was concluded on June 30, 2023.

Jean Kayiranga, a teacher at SaintMary’s High School Kiruhura says that NESA helped them to perform in science courses as they built three science laboratories and three computer labs besides capacity building trainings.  

He said that NESA has an efficient way of preparing national examinations at a very promising level, respecting all the necessary requirements and providing for a conducive learning environment for a student.

“The questions are many, but they cover all the subjects taught during the entire period of academic years, which gives chance for a student to succeed with good marks to pass to the next level,” Kayiranga says.

Sixbert Mungwarakarama, one of the students who spoke to The Inspirer said: “NESA ensures all the necessary requirements and facilities for students, reason why we perform well during the examinations.”

Despites other facilities in regard to science subjects, students say they need further support to perform in languages (French and Swahili), the lessons that are not taught in primary school.

Sister Liberatha Mukambayire, headteacher of SaintMary’s High School Kiruhura appreciates collaboration with NESA in the preparation of academic examinations.

“We work hand in hand with NESA in teaching and learning processes as well as in examination preparation, they give us training. The school itself prepares the first term examination, the second term tests are prepared at the district’s level, and we follow the trainings by NESA,” she says.

“This institution prepares quality exams for the third term at all levels of students and in their respective year of study, students can be surprised of the number of pages on the question sheets but, they finish them in only three hours, teachers correct the exams and we give a report to NESA,” she says.

Some students say that the exams prepared by NESA are easy comparing to the ones of Rwanda Education Board (REB), Sister Mukambayire explains the scenario as true because NESA’s exams are more systematical than technical, complying with ordinary academic guidelines.

“Before we used to complicate students in school so that they can go to the next class with high performance and marks aggregates, there is no huge discrepancy between these exams, but students could double in class before more than they do currently. Presently, some of the students can fail and a little number of them can double, so our responsibilities are quite the same as we all strive for our students’ success,” Sr. Mukambayire says.

“NESA exam is easy as it is very systematical than technical, but it respects all the academic guidelines,” she adds.

Evaluation of impacts

Sister Mukambayire says that NESA exams help the school to evaluate students’ performance as these exams are prepared by other people who are not their teachers.

“There is a positive impact for us as the school, NESA exams help us to assess whether teachers who prepared the exams have followed the general academic program,” she says.

Sainte Mary’s High School Kiruhura has three main course combinations including Mathematics, Physics and Geography (MPG), Physics Chemistry and Biology (PCM) and Physics Chemistry and Mathematics. 

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