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Midwives, nurses post better grades in exams
Education minister Janet Museveni (centre) with ministry officials after the release of The Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examination results at State House, Entebbe, on February 25, 2021. PHOTO/DAMALIE MUKHAYE
What you need to know:
President Museveni in September allowed all institutions teaching medical students, midwives and nurses to reopen to ensure there is no gap in hospitals that benefit from interns.
The Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examination Board (UNMEB) has registered an improvement in performance of students who sat the 2020 nursing and midwifery examination at both diploma and certificate level compared to 2019 results.
While releasing the results yesterday at State House, Entebbe, the executive secretary of UNMEB, Ms Helen Mukakarisa, said 8,383 students of which 5,689 (68 per cent) female students and 2,694 (32 per cent) male students sat for the December 2020 final examinations.
She said 7,932 of the total number of candidates (8,383) sat for examinations in certificate programmes.
Ms Mukakarisa said 7,640 (96.3 per cent) certificate candidates passed the examinations with 1,103 (13.9 per cent) passing in distinction level, 6,100 (76.9 per cent) at credit level, 437 (5.5 per cent) in pass level while 195 (2.5 per cent) were ungraded.
Of the total 8,383 students who sat for 2020 exams, 451 candidates sat for examinations in diploma programmes. Under the diploma level, 413 (91.6 per cent) passed the examinations while 12 were ungraded.
Ms Mukakarisa said the board registered an improvement in performance at both certificate and dimploma level by 3.4 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively compared to the 2019 performance.
“I am pleased to inform you that there is an improvement in performance of candidates for certificate programmes from 5,683 in June 2019 to 7,640 in December 2020 and at diploma level from 360 in 2019 to 413 in December 2020,” Ms Mukakarisa said.
She attributed the better performance to the six months students spent home revising notes that were sent to them online.
The education experts also indicated that the board was slated to conduct the 2020 examinations in June 2020 but due to outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent closure of institutions of learning, they postponed the exams to December 2020.
President Museveni in September allowed all institutions teaching medical students, midwives and nurses to reopen to ensure there is no gap in hospitals that benefit from interns.
Meanwhile, Ms Mukakarisa said a total of 123 students did not turn up for exams due to the impact of Covid-19. She said one student did not do the exams because of cross-border restrictions, one died while majority did not turn up due to lack of school fees.
The results of eight students were cancelled due to malpractice.
The Minister of Education, Ms Janet Museveni, asked nurses and midwives who are slated to join various hospitals across the country to uphold their ethics and professionalism while handling patients.
“I urge all the training institutions to include these nursing values into the trainees and train them to always remember that positive attitude, care and empathy towards a patient is medicine in itself. This gives comfort to patients and provides much needed psychological treatment in their poor health condition,” she said.
The chairperson of the board, Ms Mariam Louise Walusimbi, asked the Education ministry to allocate more resources towards the retooling of tutors in implementation of continuous assessment and adequate equipping of the practical skills laboratories.
