The Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Kataha Museveni has revealed that once the lockdown measures have been eased, her ministry will be ready to commission at least 95 brand new fully-government owned complete Secondary Schools.
“Each of these schools is already staffed with 31 teaching staff, including the Head teacher” she noted.
The Minister mentioned this during the event to release the Uganda Certificate of Education, UCE Examination on Friday at State House Entebbe.
She also demanded for accountability of the students who registered for UCE but never showed up to take it.
“As I mentioned 2 weeks ago during the release of Results for 2020 P.L.E., we must account for students who register but do not show up for Exams. I would like my Permanent Secretary to work with UNEB and trace where these 2,468 students who registered for U.C.E. but did not show up for Exams are. What happened to them?
Meanwhile, Uganda National Examinations Board, UNEB has withheld results of 1,292 candidates due to malpractice.
UNEB Executive Secretary Dan Odongo said measures put in place, resulted in a welcome reduction in the cases of malpractice.
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics have been most affected, with external assistance, collusion among candidates, impersonation and script substitution as the common cases.
The number has reduced as compared to 1,825 candidates in 2019. The affected candidates will be given a fair hearing, while examination centres from which results are withheld will be notified through their portals.
The UCE examination was conducted between 1st March and 6th April 2021 under the theme “Integrity and Security in the management of examinations, the Health and Safety of Learners is a joint responsibility”.
Candidature decreased by 4,324 (-1.3%) from 337,720 in 2019 to 333,396. Of these, 148,128 (44.4%) were USE beneficiaries. The number of male candidates registered is 166,744 (50.01%) and that of females is 166,652 (49.99%). The difference is only 92 more males than females. In 2019, the number of females had surpassed that of the males by 398.
In 2020, 330,592 candidates (165,251 males and 165,341 females) appeared for the examination compared to 333,060 candidates who appeared for the examination in 2019. This is a decrease of 2,468 (-0.7%) candidates. The number of females who sat was more than that of males by 90 candidates.
There was better performance overall, compared to 2019, with 311,233 (4,309 more) candidates passing compared to 306,924 who passed the examination in 2019.
There is an overall improvement in performance in the large entry subjects except in Geography, Chemistry and Biology, although Biology showed a slight improvement at the Distinction 2 level.
Worth noting with concern is the overall pass levels for Science subjects where nearly half of the candidates have not achieved the minimum Pass 8 level. Chemistry remains the worst done subject.
Female candidates performed better than males in English Language. In other large entry subjects, male candidates show better performance, with the differences more marked in Mathematics and the Sciences. This trend in the disparity between the performance of male and female candidates has been observed over the years.
UNEB maintains an examination centre at Luzira Prisons for the inmates to assist the Uganda Prison Service in their efforts at rehabilitation of offenders. The centre registered 45 candidates and all sat. Four obtained Division 1, eight passed in Division 2, 15 got Division 3; and 18 passed in Division 4. None failed.