UACE 2023: Thousands more qualify for varsity

The Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education 2023 results released by the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) shows that more students have qualified to join universities this year.

According to Uneb’s results released yesterday, 52,452 students, representing 47.9 percent, obtained three principal passes necessary for admission, up from 43.5 percent in the 2022 examinations.

Slightly more than half of those eligible for university entry (28,191), representing 25.9 percent obtained two principal passes, while 18,624 candidates representing 17 percent got only one principal pass. At least 9,225 students representing 8.4 percent got a subsidiary pass.

A small number of 996 (0.9 per cent) failed the examinations.

While releasing the results, Uneb’s Executive Director, Dr Dan Nokrach Odongo, said the overall performance shows that a very high 99.1 percent of the 2023 candidates qualified for the award of the UACE.

“To the candidates who performed well, I congratulate you and thank God for your success. To those who have not achieved as well as they had expected, please adopt the motto of one of our educational institutions ‘Never Give Up’. There is always a second chance and other opportunities,” he said.

The examination body awards certificates to candidates who obtain at least one subsidiary pass in any of the subjects they sat. Under the current regulations, a candidate requires a subsidiary level pass in a principal level subject to qualify.

Mr Odongo said university admissions to degree programmes currently consider two principal level passes as the minimum requirement. He said if the criteria remains the same this year, then 80,643 (73.7 percent) qualify to be admitted, compared to 67,815 (70.3 percent) in 2022.

“This is consistent with the fact that there was better overall performance and a significant increase in entries for the examination in 2023. In cases where one principal and two subsidiary level passes are considered for admission to other tertiary institutions, 90.7 percent of the candidates will qualify. This is better when compared to 2022 with 89.3 percent,” he said.

Mr Odongo also revealed that during the marking exercise, examiners reported a noticeable improvement in the quality of candidates’ work, with higher average scores showing improved performances.

“Notable has been Biology, where performance has been rather poor in the past years. [However], the core science subjects continue to show lower than desired principal performance levels,” he said.

According to the executive director, factors responsible for this state of affairs have been reported by Uneb before. They include teaching mainly theory, 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 said.

“The Humanities have tended to be better done, save for instances of misunderstanding of questions, inability to understand the differences and import of such keywords – the action verbs such as ‘describe, explain, illustrate, evaluate, etc’. that define the task to be performed in a question. Essays still lack the analytical edge that is expected at the UACE level,” he said.

He said the Board will continue to publish its Report on the Work of Candidates to provide feedback to teachers on areas which need improvement.

He was concerned that the persistence of problems raised in earlier years may point to the possibility that some teachers are not making use of Uneb’s findings.

“Another area that requires urgent attention is ICT. Apart from General Paper, candidates must offer Subsidiary Mathematics or Subsidiary ICT. Most schools are very ill-equipped in terms of computers and printers required for the practical examination. This greatly impacts the acquisition of the skills and quality of work they present during the examination,” Mr Odongo said.

The numbers

UNEB reported a total of 110,553 candidates registered for the 2023 UACE in 2,102 centres compared to 97,890 candidates from 1,969 centres the previous year of 2022.

Of these, 47,226 (42.7 percent) were females and 63,339 (57.3 percent) were males. A total of 109,488 candidates sat the examination, compared to 96,557 in 2022, an increase of 12,931 candidates.

“Of these, 46,860 (42.8 percent) were females and 62,628 (57.2 percent) were males. At this level, the number of female candidates has consistently been much lower than that of the males,” Mr Odongo said.

At least 24,679, (22.3 percent) candidates registered under Universal Post-O level Education and Training (UPOLET) schools compared to 7,321 in 2022. Of the candidates registered under the UPOLET programme, 16,008 (14.5 percent) were male and only 8,671 (7.8 percent) were females.

Mr Odongo, a greater number of students at UACE are not under the government universal education programme, much less, the females, which he said may be related to the types of schools that offer UACE.

Females up again

The results released yesterday showed that females outperformed their male counterparts, with more of them getting three principal passes. At least, 54.1 percent of females obtained three principal passes compared 43.3 percent of males. At two principal pass level, more males obtained two principals standing at 26.1 percent compared to 25 percent for females.

Even at the lowest level, more males failed compared to female candidates, with 1.2 percent of males failing against 0.5 percent of females.

Mr Odongo said although female candidates are fewer in number proportionally, they performed better.

“The percentage passes at the upper levels (3P and 2P) are higher, while the percentage passes at the lower levels and failure rate among female candidates is lower than for the males. This has been the observed trend in the last three years,” he said.

The results show that at the principal pass level (A through E), there are improvements in Entrepreneurship Education, Christian Religious Education, Geography, Literature in English, Agriculture, Chemistry, Biology and Fine Art.

“The number of candidates registering and appearing for Mathematics and the Sciences is gradually increasing, with Mathematics showing the greatest promise.

However, overall, the numbers have remained well below half of the total candidature. This is consistent with the fact that pass rates in these subjects in the [O-level] Uganda Certificate of Education examination have also been low, impacting the transition to UACE,” Mr Odongo said.

He added that proportionally, female candidates performed better than their male counterparts at the principal level pass (A-E) in all subjects except Agriculture, Chemistry and Biology. They also performed better in Subsidiary Mathematics.

“Female entries for the Sciences and Mathematics have remained lower than that of the males, consistent with the fact that overall female entry is lower than that of the males. The numbers are, however, rising as well,” he said.

In subjects offered by majority of the students, Christian Religious Education (Divinity) was the best done with 10.1 per cent getting a principal A, followed by Mathematics with 9.7 percent, General Paper 6.7 percent obtaining A, and History with 6.6 percent getting the same grade.

At the tail end are Biology with just 0.2 per cent passing with principal A, Economics and Geography had 1.1 percent of students obtaining an A, while Literature in English has 1.8 percent of the As

Professor Celestino Obua, the chairperson of Uneb, nonetheless noted that the number of candidates obtaining A has increased. He also said female students have shown resilience by outperforming their male counterparts in most of the subjects.

“We note that once again, female candidates have shown lower failure rates. Even at individual subjects, they have shown better performance,” he said.

He also singled out Luzira prisons where all the inmates who sat the exam passed and qualified to get certificates.

“The board also notes that Upper Luzira Prison is not only a place for incarceration, but a true correctional centre. …all candidates who sat UACE from the prisons passed; a testament to the efforts they have made to change for the better,” Mr Obua said.