RIYADH: The Ministry of Education has said that some 340,000 secondary school pupils passed their final examinations this year, with pass rates of 93 percent for boys and 94 percent for girls. Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported that Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah, Minister of Education, felicitated successful pupils and the nation's teachers for their “considerable efforts”, and also praised the introduction of new examination measures and procedures. “The new ‘Nour' System for education administration has made examination marking consistent and as well as the printing of examination certificates for 2.4 million intermediate and secondary school pupils,” Prince Faisal said. “They have also been able to find out their exam results in record time over the Internet.” He said that a “new package of services” would soon be introduced to improve admittance procedures at schools and allow parents to follow their children's academic progress. Khalid Al-Sabati, Deputy Minister for Boys' Education, said that examination results were made available only five days after the end of the examinations period. “Teachers have made great efforts to make the system work,” he said. “It is capable of handling 40,000 inquiries per second.”
