KAMPALA– The First lady who is also the Minister of Education and Sports Janet Kataha Museveni, on Friday afternoon, March 14th 2025 released the last set of 2024 National Examinations i.e the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education Exams at State House Nakasero in Kampala.
The Education Minister Expressed gratitude to UNEB for tireless efforts in ensuring preparation of these exams annually stressing that its the dedication and sacrifice that they have always worked on time in ensuring that the parents and government to plan for the next moves of the learners.
“We congregate here this afternoon in recognition of the milestone attained by the one hundred forty thousand and eighty-eight learners who sat for the UACE 2024 examinations from 13th November 2024 to 1st December 2024” she said.
UNEB Executive Director Dan Nokratch Odongo revealed that a total of 141,996 candidates registered for the 2024 UACE examination compared to 110,566 candidates in 2023; an increase of 31,4430 candidates (28.4%). This according to him is a very significant increase in candidature compared to previous years. Of these, 61,957 (43.6%) were females, and 80, 039 (56.4%) were males.
Males also accounted for 53.1% (16,695) of the increased candidature. It is possible that as a result of the change in admission criteria for primary school teachers, those candidates that would have gone for Grade Three teacher training after Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) chose to pursue the UACE pathway.
Centers for the UACE examination increased by 154 (7-3%6) from 2,101 in 2023 to 2,255 in 2024. Candidates who appeared for the examination were 140,888 compared to 1o9,486, in 2023, an increase of 31,40o2 candidates (28.7%).
Of these, 61,598 (43-7%) were females, and 79,29o (56.3%) were males. At this level, the number of female candidates has consistently been much lower than that of the males. However, the number of female candidates completing the cycle and sitting for the examination has been rising. In 2022, the number was 40,713. This number rose by 15.1% to 46,860 in 2023. In 2024, the number 61,598 is a 31.5% increase. It should also be noted that there are other post-UCE vocational programmes which attract significant numbers of females, e.g., in the health sector.
ODONGO narrated that just as they have observed over the years, female candidates, although fewer in number than the male candidates, have performed proportionally better than their male counterparts. The percentage passes at the upper levels (3P and 2P) are higher, while percentage passes at the lower levels and failure rate among female candidates are lower than for the males.
As reported last year, the number of candidates registering and appearing for Mathematics and the Sciences are gradually increasing, as shown in Table 6. Mathematics has the largest increase. However, overall, the numbers have remained well below half of the total candidature. The low pass rates in Sciences at the UCE level probably explain the low numbers transitioning to UACE level for those subjects.
Proportionally, female candidates performed better than their male counterparts at the principal level pass (A-E) in all the humanity subjects, Physics and General Paper. This is a trend that we have observed over the years.
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, as can be seen from Table 8 below.
Performance of candidates has shown significant improvements in economics, literature in English, physics, and biology. Significant drops in levels of performance are noticeable in Entrepreneurship Education, Christian Religious Education, Geography, Mathematics, Agriculture, and Chemistry. Grades for the Science subjects have continued to be much lower than for Humanities, which are better done.
In the Humanities, the problems continue to be poor interpretation of questions due to misunderstanding of the key concepts that determine the expected responses. In history, for example, inadequate critical thinking skills limited candidates’ ability to analyse historical views. The National Constitution is a major reference material in one of the papers in the subject. Candidates who offered this paper exhibited limited exposure to the Constitution.
#UNEB examines a number of local languages at this level. Candidates offering these languages showed a lack of knowledge of cultural practices, meanings of proverbs, and use of the proverbs in sentences; lack of appropriate vocabulary to write meaningful translations and compositions.
In the Sciences, the general problems of inadequate practical exposure continue to impact performance. Many candidates could not describe experimental procedures and failed to interpret the experimental setup from the diagrams given in the question paper, especially in physics. Some candidates gave results from experiments without showing how they were obtained. There is also the challenge of relating science concepts to real-life situations.
Detailed reports on the work of candidates in each subject will be prepared and sent to the schools.
The upward trend in the numbers of candidates offering the STEM subjects has continued, although the numbers are still well below those offering the Humanity subjects. Without downplaying in any way the important contributions of the Humanity subjects, we need the Sciences to spur our technological progress.
Deliberate efforts must, therefore, be made to increase The numbers of students offering Mathematics and Sciences to create the pool from which the tertiary institutions can select students for the various science programmes. One of the ways, Mama, is to continue to improve on the pass levels, which is being implemented by improving the adequacy of science teaching learning materials in many of our schools.
EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE
Cases of malpractice at this level have remained low. In accordance with Section 5(2) (b) of the UNEB Act, Cap 259, those results will be withheld, pending completion of investigations. Cases were reported from 38 centres out of the 2,255 centres.
Prof Celestino Obua-UNEB chairperson “The Board is happy to report that, there has been a near exponential increase in candidature from 110,566 in 2023 to nearly 142,000 as shown in the Release Statement. The number of candidates who did not report to take the examination has proportionately reduced, a trend we have noticed now for three years running.
Prof Celestino Obua-UNEB chairperson “on another positive note, the UACE 2024 examination had the least number of cases of examination malpractice compared to the Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) and UCE examinations, and as such, very few results will be withheld. The affected candidates will be accorded hearings as provided by law.
The Board completed hearings of the withheld cases of the PLE. For the cases where there was insufficient evidence, the results were released while the proven cases were cancelled in accordance with the provisions of Section 38(1) of the UNEB Act, Cap 259. The Board will publish the list of these cases to inform the public and avoid the practice of headteachers giving fake results even when they know their schools have no results.
Prof Celestino Obua-UNEB chairperson “Allow me to use this opportunity to acknowledge the concerns raised by some stakeholders about the grading of UCE under the competency based curriculum. We have taken cognizance of the confusion created by Result 1, which was misinterpreted as Grade 1. We also note that the Ministry of Education and Sports has been put under pressure to put numerical values to the Grades A-E. The Board recognizes that these concerns are understandable and occur with any change of such a magnitude as the new curriculum. The Board has planned a series of engagements with critical stakeholders to explain the grading system. The Board will not put numerical values to these grades as we hear has been agitated for, because that is not the intention of the new curriculum.
