Govt worried after 2022 UACE candidate asks Uneb ‘not to waste its time’

The state minister for higher education John Muyingo Friday said all Ugandans should be concerned after a student who scored zero in a 2022 UACE exam asked the “Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) not to waste its time.”

According to Uneb, one of the 97, 890 candidates at the November 21-December 9, 2022 UACE exams wrote on answer sheets: “Dear Mr. Examiner, you are still wasting time on me when there are more serious candidates?”

In a short poem, the student added that “I am the stone the builder refused” before listing some famous global songstresses including Celine Dion and Maria Carey- and their music.

Another candidate who scored zero in a paper “decided to just copy and rewrite questions -several times- in one of the exams.”

Results released on Friday showed that, 67,815 (70.3%) candidates obtained the minimum two principal [passes] level required for university admission amidst “some zeros scored in many papers.”

“We're wondering why a candidate cannot even score a mark in a subject which they chose. Could this performance indicate an underlying problem,” Uneb executive director Daniel Odongo said.

On his part, minister Muyingo said “they are worried.”

“When a candidate scores zero at this level, there are many questions that cross our mind. What does this mean to us as teachers? Is it the food they eat? Is it the teachers who failed this candidate or someone else?” Mr Muyingo wondered.

While Twitter user Blanshe Muhumuza advised Uneb to “find candidate one and have a one-on-one chat to understand his or her despair,” David S Masinde used the platform to question Uganda’s “outdated curriculum that causes such frustrations.”

“People are tired. You study after identifying a need that you want to solve in your community. Can we reinvent the education system?” reacted another Ugandan on the microblogging app, Emmanuel Odong.

But on Friday, Mr Muyingo partially blamed teacher-absenteeism for the poor performance in some of the 2022 Uneb exams.

“The results could have been much better if all our teachers were rendering services expected of them. It is time for us to crack down on this habit,” the minister remarked.

Meantime, about 89.3% of the 2022 UACE candidates will qualify for admission to other tertiary institutions (not university) as they obtained at least one principal and two subsidiary pass levels.

“Get interested in what is offered in our medical and technical training institutions,” Mr Muyingo emphasized at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kampala.

Friday’s results are the last set of final exams -under Uneb’s mandate- to be released for a combined total of 1,258, 209 PLE, UCE and UACE candidates of the 2022 academic year.