Secondary completion remains low as performance improves
UNEB Executive Secretary, Daniel Odongo during the release of the Uganda Advanced Certificate Examinations yesterday (21st feb). PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA
What you need to know:
The number of those performing above the minimum requirement also increased with 39,797(38.7%) passing with three principal passes compared to 29,754 (29.8%) who passed with the same grade in 2015. Even the failure rate dropped from 2.2 per cent in 2015 to 1.3 per cent in 2016
Kampala. The number of candidates who sat for the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Examinations significantly increased compared to those who sat in 2015 but overall, the number completing secondary education remained low.
The past two years (2015 and 2014) had seen the number of candidates who registered for the exams and those who actually sat drop from 107,297 in 2014 to 99847 in 2015.
In the last five years, the highest number of candidates to sit for the exams was recorded in 2013 where 114,380 students did the exams. 109,972 students had sat for the same exams in 2012.
Concerns, however, remain with a large number of students failing to either join senior five or complete UACE. For example, more than 250,000 students qualified to join Senior Five in 2014, but less than half (104,000) sat for their UACE exams.
“The transition rate from UCE to UACE is unacceptably low,” Ms Museveni said, adding “I aware of the availability of other pathways after the UCE course but my ministry will make every effort to find out whether entry into those avenues actually does account for the big difference.”
She explained that the education ministry was investigating whether what she termed as the unauthorised increment in school charges were in part contributing to some students failing to advance after UCE.
Performance
A more than 3,000 increase in the number of candidates sitting for the exams in 2016, did not deter the performance which improved overall compared to 2015.
A student is deemed to qualify for university education when they score a minimum of two principal passes. 27,831(65.8%) achieved the minimum university qualification compared to 56,613 (56.7%) in 2015.
The number of those performing above the minimum requirement also increased with 39,797 (38.7%) passing with three principal passes compared to 29,754 (29.8%) who passed with the same grade in 2015. Even the failure rate dropped from 2.2 per cent in 2015 to 1.3 per cent in 2016.
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