UNEB releases sample papers, guides for new O’Level curriculum

Kampala, (UG):- The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has released sample examination papers for the Uganda Certificate of Education competency-based assessment under the new lower school curriculum.

The sample papers cover 36 subjects in the categories of humanities, sciences, vocational and languages, each with a corresponding scoring guide.

In a statement dated March 25, 2024, UNEB Executive Secretary, Mr Dan Odongo noted that the purpose of the sample papers release is to expose both teachers and learners to the question format of competency-based assessment.

“With these tools, schools will now be comforted, and know how the assessment will go. The sample papers are however just dummies of what is likely to come in the end-cycle Assessment. The final scenarios will certainly be different,” said Odongo.

According to Mr Odongo, headteachers can now access the sample papers via the UNEB portal at all UNEB examination centres and hard copy booklets to schools without centre numbers.

He further called upon teachers to familiarise themselves with the sample papers, guide the learners and come up with similar or related scenarios and questions to expose the learners to a variety of test items.

The Ministry of Education and Sports through the National Curriculum Development Center introduced a competence-based curriculum in secondary schools in 2020 and has since held training sessions for teachers across the country on how to implement the new curriculum.

The Competency-Based Assessment emphasises learner-centred pedagogies and the integration of technological and practical innovations in the teaching/learning process.

The 2020 secondary school Language Competence-Based Curriculum replaced the 2008 Integrated English teaching syllabus that emphasised the use of integration at either subject or unit level as opposed to the teaching of language in isolated compartments like grammar, vocabulary, comprehension or writing.