Officially, 34,536 pupils from 307 schools around the country enrolled for the secondary exams, including 11,716 females and 22,820 males.

The results for the Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations were supposed to be released in July, according to Awut Deng Acuil, the minister of General Education and Instruction who also doubles the chair of the national examination council, but they were delayed due to the Ministry of Finance’s failure to provide the requisite monies on time.

According to a South Sudan National Examinations Council official, control and sorting processes will be completed this week and the actual marking of examination scripts may begin next week. Results are expected to be announced in September.

In normal conditions, results are normally available within three months following the completion of previous years’ examinations.

The delay is likely to affect early enrolment into universities for secondary school leavers who claim they have even “forgotten” about the results because they are long overdue.

Once results are released, a South Sudan Certificate of Secondary Examination is processed at a fee of 200 South Sudanese Pounds regular and 300 South Sudanese Pounds “urgent” from the National Examinations Secretariat.