Over 400,000 candidates to join secondary school

Candidates who obtained grades between one and four will be eligible to join Senior One, according to the national examiner.

A total of 480,067 pupils, who sat the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) will be eligible to join Senior One.

According to Uganda National Examination Board (Uneb) secretary Mathew Bukenya, all the pupils who attained grades between one and four are eligible for admission to any secondary school.

“A candidate is deemed to have passed if he/she obtains divisional grades of 1, 2, 3, or 4. Such candidates will qualify to register for any post-primary examination conducted by Uneb,” Mr Bukenya said.

A total of 565,663 candidates from 11,171 centres (schools) registered for PLE in 2012. Of this number, 463,332 (81.9 per cent) were UPE beneficiaries. Only 120,331 (18.1 per cent were non-UPE.

According to statistics from Uneb, in 2011, 444, 815 passed and were able to attain post- primary education. Therefore, the difference between 463,067 and 463,332 is 18,252. The increment of 102,331 pupils shows an
improvement in performance.

Mr Bukenya said the performance of 2012 PLE candidates was better compared to that of 2011. The percentage grade of division one in 2012 was 10.9 per cent higher than that of 2011, which was 9.6 per cent.

The Commissioner for Secondary Education, Mr John Mary Agaba, said that whereas 463,067 pupils passed, the allocation and admission of students to secondary education would be based on the grade obtained by the pupil. “Selection criteria are based on Uneb results. We base on the data given to us by Uneb to allocate students to schools of their choice,” Mr Agaba said. He added that in case one does not get admitted to one’s first choice, one
is sold to another school.

Education Minister Jesica Alupo said the results were for the first group of pupils who were taught in local languages from Primary One to Three under the Thematic Curriculum.

She said the idea behind the curriculum was that learners adopt lifelong skills more easily if they start the learning using vernacular as a medium of instruction.

rwanambwa@ug.nationmedia.com