2024 UACE results: Positive takeaways as more work lies ahead

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 2024 UACE RESULTS 

The results of the 2024 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examination were released Friday (March 14), with a good measure of positives observed as well as a candid reminder to all stakeholders of just how much work still lies ahead.

One of the positives is the "near exponential increase in candidature" (28.4 percent) — from 110,566 registered candidates in 2023 to nearly 142,000 in 2024.

Another is that the number of candidates who did not show up to sit the exam proportionately reduced — a trend that Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) chairperson Prof. Celestino Obua (pictured immediately below) said "we have noticed now for three years running".

Then, the performance of candidates last year showed significant improvements in Economics, Literature in English, Physics, and Biology.

Still on the bright side, we learned that all incarcerated candidates who sat last year's final exam from behind bars obtained a UACE certificate with at least a principal pass level.

"This is testament to efforts they have made to become better citizens who will lead more productive lives when they are eventually released back into society," said Obua.

Additionally, last year's UACE exam had the least number of cases of examination malpractice compared to the Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) and the UCE examination of the same year, which means fewer results will be withheld.

Typically, what happens is that the affected candidates are accorded hearings as provided by the law.

The problem areas

On the flipside, overall results of the 2024 UACE indicated that percentage passes at the different levels have dropped. But UNEB boss Obua was keen to add here that there was a very large increase in candidature of over 30,000, which increases tend to impact the statistics.

On the level of performance, UNEB executive secretary Dan Odongo said there were "significant drops" observed in Entrepreneurship Education, Christian Religious Education (CRE), Geography, Mathematics, Agriculture, and Chemistry.

Also, the grades for the science subjects continued to be much lower than for humanities, which are better done.

"In the humanities, the problems continue to be poor interpretation of questions due to misunderstanding of the key concepts that determine the expected responses," said Odongo (pictured below).

He gave an example of History, where "inadequate critical thinking skills limited candidates' ability to analyze historical views".

Odongo also said that candidates who offered a paper where the Ugandan Constitution is a major reference material exhibited "limited exposure" to the document.

Also on a low note, the candidates who offered local languages are said to have showed "a lack of knowledge of cultural practices, meanings of proverbs, and use of the proverbs in sentences" as well as "a lack of appropriate vocabulary to write meaningful translations and compositions".

Then in the sciences, the general problems of inadequate practical exposure continued to impact performance, according to UNEB ED Odongo.

"Many candidates could not describe experimental procedures and failed to interpret the experimental setup from the diagrams given in the question paper, especially in Physics. Some candidates gave results from experiments without showing how they were obtained.

"There is also the challenge of relating science concepts to real-life situations," he added.

On exam malpractice, cases were reported from 38 exam centres out of the 2,255 centres. Those results will be withheld, pending completion of investigations, in accordance with Section 5(2) (b) of the UNEB Act, Cap 259.

'Learning should be enjoyable'

In her remarks before releasing the results, the First Lady and Minister of Education & Sports, Janet Museveni, spoke of the need for all stakeholders in the education sector to interest themselves in the release of end of cycle results because they "provide a quick reflection of the health of the basic and secondary education system in our country".

"For example, there is need to take interest in what has led to the significant increase of the 28 percent in UACE candidature for 2024 compared to previous years," she said.

"It is important that this nearly 30 percent in candidature is scientifically and logically explained to enable the government to know the good efforts that need to be made better while at the same time doing away with the investments that are of little to no value in secondary education."

Competency-based & learner-centred

Expressing optimism that performance in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines will improve, the education minister spoke of best practices in STEM education dictating a need to change the way sciences and Maths are taught.

"This change starts with the teacher changing their attitude towards STEM and how it ought to be taught," she said.

"As a government, we are now making strategic investments in reviewing the secondary education curricula to be competency-based, projects-based and learner-centred for the learning process not only to become meaningful but also enjoyable for both the learners and teachers."

'Mismatch undesirable'

Mrs Museveni urged parents and teachers to "support your children as they navigate learning using the revised Lower Secondary Curriculum and now the A'Level curriculum that has been adapted to utilize similar teaching and learning methodologies as those of the O'Level curriculum".

The higher-level secondary curriculum has been aligned to the lower-level one by making it competency-based and learner-centred. This is to facilitate interactivity while at the same time emphasizing problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and innovation.

"As a result of this reconfiguration of the secondary education curricula, the higher institutions of learning must now urgently review their respective curricula for initial teacher education and training. The mismatch where universities continue to graduate teachers who cannot utilize competency-based and learner-centred curricula is undesirable," said the First Lady.

To solve this, she said the academic staff who train the teachers must also realign their learning delivery methods to become competency-based and learner-centred.

"As a ministry responsible for higher education, we are going to coordinate our efforts to ensure that we put in place the necessary policy environment to enable the training across the higher education sub-sector become harmonized with the curricula in teaching reforms introduced in basic and secondary education levels," explained the minister.

That way, by the time the pioneer cohort of the revised O'Level curriculum join higher education within the next three years, the hope is that the higher institutions of education will have made the necessary adjustments to accommodate those learners.

Universities for Busoga, Bunyoro in offing

Earlier, UNEB chairperson had said that while more students are qualifying for placement in post-UACE institutions, the issue to address is whether the system is able to absorb them.

In her response to later, Mrs Museveni said the foundational blocks in place in the form of 58 universities — including 48 private ones — have the adequate capacity to absorb the learners willing to pursue higher education at university level.

The 10 public universities that are already in operation in the different regions are:

▪️ Mountains of the Moon University (Rwenzori)
▪️ Soroti University (Teso)
▪️ Busitema University (Bukedi)
▪️ Gulu University (Acholi)
▪️ Lira University (Lango)
▪️ Muni University (West Nile)
▪️ Kabale University (Kigezi)
▪️ Mbarara University of Science & Technology (Ankole)
▪️ Kyambogo University (Buganda)
▪️ Makerere University (Buganda)

Mrs Museveni said a public university for Busoga region is in "advanced stages" of establishment.

She also said that recently, stakeholders from Bunyoro region identified land for construction of Bunyoro University and that the government has allocated sh15 billion to begin its construction this financial year.

So what about those learners who may not be interested in pursuing the academic career path of higher education?

There are 15 government technical colleges for those interested in the TVET career path after Senior Six.

On the confusion within the public around the grading of the 2024 UCE results, the education minister said UNEB will come up with awareness engagements to increase the public's understanding of how the grading system works under the revised Lower Secondary Curriculum.

She was also told that the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), working with UNEB, have yet to finalize the development of an assessment framework to guide the assessment process for the aligned A'Level curriculum.

"When this process is completed, the public shall be sensitized about that," she said.

The minister also reiterated her call to schools on student data privacy, saying: "Schools have the individual responsibility to always maintain confidentiality and privacy of the learners' results."
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📸  PICTURE THIS

The moment the First Lady received the 2024 UACE results and later released them to public: