UNEB withholds UACE results for 279 candidates

Education minister, Jessica Alupo (2nd right) releasing UACE exams in Kampala on Friday. She was flanked by UNEB and other ministry of educational officials. Photo by Dominic Bukenya

Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has withheld results of 279 UACE candidates (0.27% of candidates who sat).
The outgoing UNEB executive secretary, Mr Mathew Bukenya on Friday said board withheld the results as citing external assistance, possession of unauthorized material in the examination room and collusion.

“The most affected subjects have been mathematics, Subsidiary Mathematics, Subsidiary ICT and Art. Hearing will be accorded to the affected candidates before final decisions are made,” he said while releasing the 2015 UACE results in Kampala.
According to Mr Bukenya, a total of 101,268 candidates registered for the 2015 examination from 2,003 centres compared to 108,419 candidates from 1,803 centres in 2014.
He said a total of 99,847 candidates appeared for the examination in 2015, compared to 107, 297 in 2014.

Mr Bukenya further observed that in terms of percentages, female candidates performed better than males in History, Economics, Entrepreneurship Education, Islamic Religious Education, Christian Religious Education, Geography and Literature in English. They also performed better in general paper and Subsidiary Mathematics.
He said male candidates performed better in the Science subjects while majority of female candidates offered the Arts subjects.

“Female registered candidates were 42, 166 in 2015 compared to 43, 944 in 2014. Female candidates constituted 41.6% of the total number of candidates who took the examination in 2015. Although gender parity has been achieved at UCE, at this level, the index is still low, at about 0.71, about the same as 2014,” he added.
According to him, it is possible that many female candidates opt for the other available post –UCE level training programmes such as nursing, teaching and other vocational courses instead of the UACE course.

Education minister Jessica Alupo said 4000 candidates will be admitted tom public universities under Government scheme while 2,000 will be admitted under students loan scheme.