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CPA Institute Uganda in drive to improve performance
CPA Ronald Mutumba (L) and CPA Laura Aseru Orobia reveal the CTA Certificate, one of the three examinations results released. PHOTO/PROMISE TWINAMUKYE.
What you need to know:
- The Institute, with help of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) is going to establish a modular performance audit course.
The Certified Public Accountants Institute is starting a masterclass for tuition providers (facilitators) on pedagogy among other incentives to help improve learner’s performance in different underperformed papers.
This was revealed during the release of November 2023 examination results last week in Kampala.
“Many of the people who teach accounting courses are accountants, but they have not qualified as teachers. One may have excelled but teaching is a profession,” John Bosco Ntagaare, the Director of Education said.
He added that giving the tuition providers skills to and methods they can use to deliver effectively to their students will help a great deal in improving the performance of the underscored papers of accounting.
This class was thought about after researching on the reasons behind the low grades and one of the complaints that topped the research was that maybe, the students are not taught well.
“Someone comes to class and starts teaching without doing a recap of the previous lesson, does not check if the students understand or not, and is just focused on delivering a lecture, which is not sufficient for the students,” Ntagaare says.
This masterclass works for all ‘teachers’ whether one has done Accounting Technicians Diploma (ATD), Certified Tax Advisor (CTA) and Certified Public Accountants (CPA) or not.
“To be qualified as a tuition provider, one needs to have competence in the subject. If it is qualitative techniques, somebody with a mathematical background should be able to teach that subject and if it is financial accounting, someone with a CPA should be able to teach the subject,” he said.
The performance, which led to this and other incentives of learning, dropped in Principles of Auditing, which had the lowest pass rate of 21.4 percent in ATD, and some subjects in CTA and CPA.
More incentives
Performance audit course
The Institute, with help of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) is going to establish a modular performance audit course to transform Supreme Audit Institutions’ (SAIs) organisational capabilities for greater impact in their jurisdictions.
“The OAG recruits auditors who learn on the job to execute performance audits. These audits require multidisciplinary capabilities to provide the needed assurances on economy, efficiency and effectiveness of programmes and various functions that can be deemed to be helpful in making government entities improve and become more efficient,” said CPA Laura Aseru Orobia, chairperson Public Accountants Examinations Board (PAEB).
The Institute of Certified Public Accountants Uganda is going to adopt and adapt the performance audit modular course which was rolled out in 2020 by the African Organisation of English-Speaking Supreme Audit Institutions – English Speaking (AFROSAI-E), which has a membership of 26 African countries.
Study materials and webinars
In a bid to improve performance in general accounting, students were encouraged to buy subsidized study materials for revision purposes and attend different webinars which are free of charge.
Most of the study materials, according to CPA Orobia, are already available at the Secretariat with few remaining under print and will be available the course of the month.
Students were also advised to seek tuition from recognized tuition providers for improved performance.
CPA Ronald Mutumba, the vice president ICPAU reminded the Accounting community that professional excellence also goes beyond academic excellence and that experience is one big ingredient thrown into being a good accountant. This is one of the reasons why the performance audit course is being rolled out.
ATD relocation
It was also revealed that the Accounting Technicians Diploma (ATD) course has been transferred to the Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB) with effect from January 1, 2024. ICPAU, therefore will no longer register new ATD students, but will continue to conduct examinations for the current students for two years (2024 and 2025).
UBTEB, according to CPA Orobia, has restructured the ATD course to fit in their modular system, but will remain an accredited course by ICPAU in accordance with the Uganda Accountancy Qualifications Framework (UAQF).
The holders of the diploma, therefore, will be exempted from Level I papers of the CPA(U) course.
Release of the exams
Releasing the results early in the year, according to CPA Mutumba, will help students adequately prepare early enough for their May examinations.
Exam results released on the day revealed that females performed better than males in most fields except in Certified Tax Advisor, which is dominated by more males than females.
The graduation for the 6,223 candidates of 2023 is scheduled for March, 7, 2024.
ptwinamukye@ug,nationmedia.com
