Kampala, (UG): At least 73 per cent of candidates who sat their Uganda Advanced Certificate of Examinations (UACE) in 2023 qualified for university studies, reflecting a steady performance improvement as compared to 2022 and 2021.
This was revealed by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) on Thursday during the release of the 2023 UACE Results in which 110,553 learners who registered for the S.6 examinations across 2,102 centres in the country passed at a 99% rate compared to the previous years.
“Analysis of the overall candidates’ performance in the examination shows that a very high percentage of candidates (99.1%) qualified for the award of the UACE, just as was in 2022,” the Board’s Executive Secretary, Mr Dan Odongo said in his remarks at the results release.
According to UNEB statistics, “of the total candidates who sat for the exams, 80, 643 meet the minimum requirement of 2 principal level passes for admission to the university, up from a figure of 67, 815 in 2022 examinations.”
“In cases where one principal and two subsidiary pass levels are considered for admission to other tertiary institutions, 90.7 per cent of the candidates will qualify. This is better as compared to 2022 with 89.3 per cent.”
Mr Dan Odongo noted that examiners observed an improvement in the quality of candidates’ work, with higher mean scores in many subject areas where performance has been reported to have improved, according to Odongo.
“Notable has been Biology, where performance has been rather poor in the past years. The core science subjects continue to show lower than desired principal performance levels. The factors responsible for this state of affairs include teaching theoretically, with candidates lacking in practical skills to perform experiments and record and interpret their results. Questions based on practical experience posed problems as a result,” he explained.
The board has called for urgent attention to subjects relating to ICT, noting that “most schools are very ill-equipped in terms of computers and printers required for the practical examination which greatly impacts the acquisition of the skills and quality of work they present during the examination.”
By comparison, 67,815 (70.3%) in 2022 learners qualified for university admission as compared to 69.8% in 2020.
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