How students fared in each subject
KAMPALA. The 2018 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams saw Light Academy Secondary School in Wakiso District dominating performances in several subjects. The school led in Mathematics, scoring an average of 1.38, followed by Chemistry with 2.11, Biology 2.22, Commerce 1.22, and Geography 2.47.
Namilyango College, also in Mukono, emerged the best in Physics, scoring an average of 2.93.
Gayaza High School in Wakiso District, outperformed other schools in English Language, with an average score of 2.63, while History had God’s Way High School, Maganjo in Wakiso, emerging the best performer scoring an average of 1.56.
CRE saw Seroma Christian High School in Mukono scoring an average of 1.70 to complete the top position in each subject.
On average, 328 schools out of 3,178 scored between Distinction One (D1) to 6.9 in Physics, while Chemistry had 321 schools scoring between Distinction One and 6.9. Biology had 513 schools and Mathematics 948 schools scoring an average of between Distinction One and 6.9.
In the humanities, 1,523 schools out of 3,119 scored an average of between Distinction One and 6.9.
CRE had 1,592 schools scoring between Distinction One and 6.9, while Geography had 1,652, History 1,566 and English 1,349 had schools scoring between Distinction One and 6.9.
Why disparities
The results saw candidates performing better in the humanities than in the sciences as has been the case for previous years.
Mr James Tweheyo, the former General Secretary of Uganda National Teachers’ Union and a renowned advocate of improved quality of education in the country, said a combination of factors are contributing to disparities in performances in different subjects.
He said some teachers are poor at delivering content to the pupils and students, while others excel.
“First of all, there are children who have special talent in different subjects and that doesn’t mean that such talents cannot be transferred to other subjects. What we need to do as teachers is to understand that and help children to achieve the best. Teachers must also understand the syllabus to ensure that they deliver the right materials because at the end of the day, our performances are judged by the performance of pupils in examinations,” he said.
Mr Tweheyo also said the perception that Uneb exams are the ultimate benchmark for intelligence and success was wrong.
He said it has created a situation where many schools and teachers have resorted to drilling students on passing exams, while those that try to emphasise general knowledge tend to lag behind during the final examinations.
While releasing the results on Thursday, the Uneb secretary, Mr Dan Odongo Nokrach attributed the disparities to language deficiency and candidates’ failure to correctly interpret questions.
He said while the problem is more pronounced in English Language exams, it also badly reflected in other subjects.
“The challenge of language deficiency is reflected in performance in other subjects, where chief examiners continue to report problems of question interpretation, misunderstanding key words and generally poor language interpretations,” Mr Odongo said.
On the performances in the science subjects, Mr Odongo said candidates experienced problems in handling apparatus during the practical tests and failed to make correct observations, leading to drawing poor conclusions.
He attributed this to the fact that teachers failed to integrate practical and theoretical teaching and learning.
“Evidence available indicates that in many schools, practical lessons are not done by the candidates until towards UCE exams and candidates go into the practical exams ill-equipped. This could explain why most malpractices were in science practical papers,” Mr Odongo said.
