Uneb attributes low UCE candidature to Covid-19

The Uganda national examination board says they registered low candidature of candidates who sat for the 2020 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) due to various reasons, top among which include Coronavirus induced lockdown where schools were closed.

Speaking at the release of the UCE results, Dr Kendrice Turyagenda, the director Education standards in the ministry of education said that the board used to record an increase of candidature between 2 to 3 per cent in the previous years.

She however, noted that in the 2020 UCE exams, candidature reduced by 1.3 percent over various reasons.

Candidature decreased by 4,324 (-1.3 percent) from 337,720 in 2019 to 333,396. Of these, 148,128 (44.4 percent) were USE beneficiaries. The number of male candidates registered is 166,744 (50.01 percent) and that of females is 166,652 (49.99 percent). The difference is only 92 more males than females.

According to her, some private schools failed to reopen after the lockdown and some learners failed to find other schools to register for UCE 2020.

She also says that some parents failed to return their children to school over fear of Covid while some girls had already gotten married. Another explanation is that other students got found jobs during the lockdown and could not return to school.

“Meanwhile, performance generally improved,” Ms Turyagenda added while reading the statement on behalf of the borad chairperson, Prof Mary Ogwakol.