The Ministry of Education has announced a change in the structure of the 2024/2025 academic year’s national examinations. This year, the exams feature questions paired with multiple-choice answers, from which students must select the correct one.
According to the Ministry of Education, this change aims to encourage students to think critically about their answers based on what they have learned and to increase the overall pass rate in the national exams.
Minister of Education Joseph Nsengimana stated that this new format will help improve student performance compared to previous years.
The first national exam began at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, across the country and lasted three hours for both levels: the ordinary level (O-Level) and advanced level (A-Level) of secondary education.
After the exam, students noted that there had been significant changes in the way questions were asked, compared to previous years. They also expressed maturity, saying that completing their school levels is not a time for misconduct — unlike in past years when some students burned notebooks or tore up textbooks.
Over 255,000 students sat for the national exams concluding the 2024/2025 academic year. A key feature of these exams was the multiple-choice format, where students had to select the correct answers from given options.
This year, national exams are being conducted in 1,595 schools.
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In the ordinary level (O-Level), 149,134 candidates are sitting for exams, including 82,412 girls and 66,722 boys.
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In the advanced level (A-Level), 106,364 candidates registered:
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101,081 from regular schools (55,435 girls and 45,646 boys),
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5,283 are private candidates.
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