Kigali — The Rwanda National Examination Council (RNEC) will this year release the national exams results before the new school year commences unlike in previous years.

According to council, the decision was taken in order to enable successful students to begin their school term with other students.

The 2010 academic year is scheduled to begin on February 1.

Previously, students who sat for Primary Leaving Exams and O-level, reported to school almost a month after the opening of the academic year.

Speaking to The New Times, RNEC's Executive Secretary, John Rutayisire, said that the marking exercise had been completed successfully and that the results would be out in less than three weeks' time.

Rutayisire says that the careful selection of examiners who were chosen to mark the exams was among the outstanding reasons that led to the success of the exercise.

He added that on top of the comprehensive selection, the examiners were given strict guidelines and were warned before hand of punitive actions that would be taken against those discovered to have falsely awarded marks during the marking exercise.

A total of 168,473 pupils sat for PLEs last year, while 53,378 is the number of students who sat for O-Level exams.