900 schools miss grade one
Education minister Jessica Alupo after releasing the 2014 UCE results at Statistics house in Kampala on Tuesday. PHOTO BY FAISWAL KASIRYE
What you need to know:
Hindrance. Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) executive secretary cited cramming as one of the issues that hindered most students from passing
Kampala.
A total of 914 schools did not get any student in the first grade in last year’s Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams.
For instance, Mpanga SS had 446 students but none scored division one. It was followed by Mukura Memorial SS with 335 students, Jinja SS Annex (293), Buzaya SS (291) and Bumbo SS (288). As a result, 66, 400 students who studied from the 914 schools were affected.
Uneb describes candidates in Division One as those who are able to demonstrate high levels of knowledge and skills in the subjects they take. Out of the 306, 165 who sat 2014 UCE exams, only 23, 450 had Division One. It is these students whose chances of accessing better schools for Advanced level of education are high.
While releasing the results on Tuesday, Mr Mathew Bukenya, the Uneb executive secretary, cited limited English language proficiency among some students which prevented them from understanding the meaning of essential words used in the questions. He said many cram unusual expressions from English language texts.
“The expressions are then reproduced irrelevantly in answers to English composition questions, which answers are supposed to be original and imaginative, or based on candidates’ real life experience. The practice is killing the skill of creative writing by candidates,” Mr Bukenya said.
But Dr Yusuf Nsubuga, director basic education in ministry of Education, said they are revisiting the teacher training sessions to help improve language proficiency. He said, for instance, they are going to integrate Literature in English and English language for students to understand the principles of communication.
