Schools to relax Senior 5 cut-off marks
Esther Arinaitwe (C) is congratulated by her family after scoring Aggregate 13 from Maryhill High School, Mbarara.
Kampala- Secondary Schools are likely to relax admission requirements for Senior Five entrants following a slip in performance in last year’s Uganda Certificate of Education examinations compared to the previous year.
Although many candidates have passed, a critical analysis of results shows that very few students have scored good grades. According to the 2015 UCE results, the pass rate was 90.3 per cent compared to 93.4 per cent the previous year.
A total of 29,593 candidates failed the exams compared to 20,167 in 2014. This means more 9,426 candidates failed the exams last year.
According to the 2015 results released yesterday by Education minister Jessica Alupo, 25,750 candidates, representing 8.5 per cent, passed in Division One compared to 23,450 candidates in the previous year.
Another 48,642 candidates passed in Division Two, 70,413 (Division Three) and majority totalling to 130,058 candidates in fourth grade. In the last six years, majority of the candidates have been passing in Division Four and these are usually left out.
Traditionally well-performing schools such as Nabisunsa Girls, Gayaza High School, St Mary’s College-Kisubi, Mt St Mary’s Namagunga and King’s College Budo are expected to maintain last year’s cut-off points or even lower them.
All these schools last year put the threshold intake aggregates at between 10 and 18 in best eight subjects, respectively. The best candidate is expected to score Aggregate 8 in eight subjects. This means that he/she must get a distinction one in each subject.
A candidate needs a credit six in the three subjects which form a subject combination for a course in Senior Five. But top schools demand a distinction in every subject in a combination.
At least 274,863 candidates passed, out of 306,507 who sat for the examinations. This number (274,863) is lower compared to 284,022 who passed in 2014.
According to Uneb grading, Grade One and Two are distinction passes. Where 3,4,5 and 6 are credit passes, Grade 7 is pass and Grade 9 is failure.
Division X indicates that a candidate was absent or took insufficient papers for a grade to be awarded.
