Janet clears semi-candidates to sit for 2022 exams
Janet Museveni, Education minister
What you need to know:
- This only applies to semi-candidates in Primary Six, who can sit for Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) and Senior Three students, who can sit for Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE).
Education minister Janet Museveni has cleared all learners in semi-candidate classes, who have the capability to sit for the forthcoming 2022 examinations, to be allowed to register.
This only applies to semi-candidates in Primary Six, who can sit for Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) and Senior Three students, who can sit for Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE).
The ministry spokesperson, Mr Denis Mugimba, yesterday confirmed the minister’s communication, saying the government would incur the extra cost that might be brought by an increase in the number of candidates.
For instance, the students who were in Senior Two in 2020 when the government imposed the first Covid-19-induced lockdown in March, were supposed to be in Senior Four by now if the government had not imposed a second lockdown in 2021.
This means these students should be sitting for their UCE this year. However, due to the lockdown that saw schools closed for nearly two year, these learners are in Senior Three after they were automatically promoted to the next class.
However, some schools adopted distance learning and the process of their learning was not interrupted by the lockdown, hence their learners were taken through the lessons for Senior Two and Senior Three hence they would qualify to join Senior Four.
Learners who sat for the PLE in 2017 were supposed to sit for UCE last year in 2021, but all schools were closed. So these are the ones who were promoted to Senior Four this year, and are slated to sit for UCE this year.
This also applies to learners who were in Primary Five in 2020 and are supposed to be in Primary Seven but are in Primary Six. These have also been cleared to sit for PLE exams this year if they are ready.
“We do not want to see a dead year in our education system. That is why the minister said students who are capable of sitting for the 2022 exams should be registered so that we do not carry the same problem to next year,” Mr Mugimba said.
He, however, said he is slated to give more updates on this matter, among other issues the minister wants known to the public, next week.
Daily Monitor has learnt that some schools, especially those in urban areas, gave pre-registration examinations to their learners in semi-candidate classes and those who passed are being registered during the ongoing exercise.
When contacted yesterday, officials from the Uganda National Examination Board (Uneb) said they are always ready to administer exams to all candidates who will be registered by schools.
The Uneb director of examinations, Mr Mike Masikye Nangosya, said the extra cost that comes with extra candidates is usually incurred by schools and the Ministry of Education that pays for all candidates in universal primary and secondary schools.
“As Uneb, we produce the examination materials based on the number of candidates schools present after registration so schools are free to register candidates who appear ready for exams,” Mr Nangosya said.
However, the chairperson of National Private Education Institutions Association (NPEIA), Mr Hasadu Kirabira, protested the move saying it is going to cause parents with learners in semi-candidates to start panicking.
“That is not proper. We agreed with the Ministry of Education to have these learners skip only one class because they couldn’t skip two classes for the two years they missed,” Mr Kirabira said.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of NPEIA, Mr Paul Etiang, said this is a welcome move, but warned that it should only be implemented this year.
“I do not see any problem with this provided the learner is capable. This should only apply to learners who continued learning during the lockdown,” Mr Etiang said.
BACKGROUND
The registration of candidates by all schools across the country started on February 2. The candidates are lined up to sit for their final exams starting October, with UCE followed by PLE and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education UACE in November.
