The Minister of Education and Sports, Ms. Janet Museveni, and Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) chaired by professor Mary Okwakol released the results for the 2019 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) today at the Office of the Prime Minister.
The Executive secretary of the Uganda National Examinations Board, Mr. Dan Odongo, presented that more candidates registered for the examinations last year, compared to the previous year. 104,476 candidates registered, a 5% rise from 99,512 in 2018.
Mr. Odongo congratulated the female candidates who performed better than boys this year. He decried poor performance due to lazy teachers rushing through the syllabus at the last minute without giving students ample time to read and recollect.
He noted that most students misunderstood questions, especially in Christian Religious Education – CRE. Lack of exposure in the science practical experiments especially Biology where candidates crammed drawings instead of dissecting the provided specimens.
Exam malpractices were minimal since only 126 candidates cheated and their results were withheld.
Performance improved in Chemistry, Physics, and Economics, this is the third batch of examinations to be released by UNEB after the UCE that was released three weeks ago and the Primary Leaving Exams in mid-January.
JC Muyingo, State Minister for Higher Education congratulated the 2019 UACE candidates and praised their ability to contribute to the development of the economy.
He also encouraged students to acquire appropriate skills to compete favorably in the job markets.
Financially challenged students are advised to apply for loan schemes so that they can continue with tertiary education.
First lady Janet Museveni commended members of the board for handling the examinations smoothly. She pointed out the use of ICT as opportune for the efficiency and great performance exhibited by the examinations body this year.
“ICT made the process of distribution and marking effective...At the UACE level, we noticed an increased candidature of girls; these girls are joining universities and other vocational institutions and are no longer dropping out.” Janet affirmed.
She advised candidates to look for courses that fit them best, and not be swayed by the bandwagon effect.
A total of 104,476 students were registered to sit for the 2019 examinations from 1,900 centres. The results released by UNEB today show that the percentage of girls with three principal passes was 42.9% compared to 33.7% for the males whereas 27.5% of the girls had two principal passes and only 27% of the boys had the same number of passes.
The results also indicated that the failure rate among the female candidates was lower at 0.8% compared to their male counterparts at 1.8%. 1400 candidates failed.
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