USE students perform poorly

The Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has registered a high failure rate among the Universal Secondary School (USE) students who sat for their Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education compared to their counter parts in private schools.
According to UNEB, only 6,085 candidates who sat their exams under the Universal Post O-level Education and Training Program (UPOLET) were able to obtain three principal passes compared to 28,734 candidates who obtained three principal passes in private schools.
Speaking while releasing the 2017 UACE results at the office of the prime minister in Kampala on Wednesday, the UNEB executive secretary, Mr Daniel Odongo, said a higher percentage of non-UPOLET got at least two principal passes compared to UPOLET candidates.

He however, noted that most of candidates who sat for the A-level examination are from private schools.
The state minister for Higher Education, JC Muyingo attributed the high failure rate in science subjects to poor teaching methods.
Speaking at the release of UACE results, Mr Muyingo noted that there was continuous poor performance of candidates in science subjects at all the levels of the national examination board.

This was after the board said it had registered poor performance in science subjects in the 2017 UACE exams with an average of 50 per cent candidates unable to obtain a principal pass.
According to the minister, there’s a disconnect in teaching of science subjects with teachers spending more time on theory at the expense of practical subjects.
“This is something that has made students fail their exams. I call upon schools to teach both theory and practical subjects at the same time,” Mr Muyingo said.
He also noted that private schools are not encouraging the teaching of science subjects before he urged them to support government by putting in more efforts.