A total of 1,097 candidates from 27 districts who were found to have cheated in the 2025/26 Advanced Level national examinations will not be allowed to retake the exams, Education Minister Joseph Nsengimana said Friday.
The decision was announced as the government released results showing that 94.33% of candidates who sat the A-Level examinations passed, with officials reporting a marked improvement in the number of students achieving higher scores.
Nsengimana said candidates caught cheating would not be given another opportunity because that could encourage others to view cheating as a risk worth taking.
“We do not want it to become a culture where someone cheats or helps another person cheat, thinking they will be allowed to sit another examination. That is not how it will work,” he said.
Of the 108,406 candidates who sat the examinations, 94.33% passed, with a pass mark of at least 50%. Girls accounted for 55.05% of registered candidates. Boys recorded a higher pass rate at 95.9%, compared with 93% for girls, although the minister said girls had improved compared with the previous year.
National Examination and School Inspection Authority Director General Bernard Bahati said the results showed a shift toward higher marks. The proportion of candidates scoring below 50% fell from 10.9% to 5.6%, while the share scoring at least 70% increased.
In General Education, 56,330 of 56,515 candidates sat the examinations, with 94.18% passing. The pass rate was 95.86% in Humanities, 93.87% in Sciences and 93.61% in Languages.
The results also showed strong performance in technical and professional education. Technical Secondary Schools recorded a 94.55% pass rate among 42,793 candidates who sat the exams.
Professional education recorded a 94.28% pass rate. Teacher Training Colleges had the highest performance at 99.88%, followed by Associate Nursing at 99.84%. Accounting recorded a lower pass rate of 88.59%.
In General Education, the proportion scoring 70% or above rose from 27.79% to 48.63%, while those scoring 90% or above increased from 0.39% to 3.31%.
Nsengimana attributed the improvement to efforts by students, teachers, parents and other education stakeholders.
The results were released on Friday, marking an important point for thousands of students preparing to move into university, higher education, technical training or employment.
