Congratulations are in order for the successful candidates and all associated with their attainment. Girl students continue to do well, but generally, the urban students have fared better than their rural counterparts. One cannot but also note the fact that cent per cent success rate continues to be monopolised by ten or so institutions of the country, most of which are in the capital. Perhaps this is something that the ministry of education ought to address as a priority. After all, a nation can claim to be well educated when the level of good education is spread across the country in equal measure. Like economic growth, good education must be distributed in an egalitarian manner.

At the risk of sounding pessimistic we see the glass as being still not quite full, in that almost 48 percent of the candidates has failed to make the grade. Although the percentage of unsuccessful candidates has decreased considerably in the last two years, the current rate of failure is disconcerting. One wonders what will the future of these candidates be?

While the authorities must be commended for bringing down the incidence of cheating at the exams we would like to suggest that it must be altogether banished.

Basically, the authorities must address the systemic lacunae that have resulted in as many as 409 institutions going without a single successful candidate to their credit. Although the number of such institutions has gone down, yet it is too large, suggesting some serious fault somewhere along the line. Also, the problem of weak management in many of the schools due to local politics must be addressed immediately. Overall, institutional changes must be effected to ensure that the failure rate is brought down radically.