The Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has revealed that performance in the subjects of Mathematics and Chemistry, have significantly improved in the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE).
Dan Odong, the UNEB executive director, noted that this has been highly seen at the A pass level. However, Physics subject had a drop at A but remained comparable at the A-E level.
Although there is a drop in the number of candidates registered this year, Odong said that entries for Mathematics and the Science subjects (except Physics), increased significantly compared to entries for 2020.
“This was also observed in the 2020 examination where Mathematics and Science entries had also been higher than those for 2019 and before.”
Odong revealed that entries for Physics have not shown a consistent trend.
For the Performance in Biology, he said this has again dropped below the 2020 level where it had risen.
Odong said examiners have attributed this to candidates having problems in questions on Genetics, Ecology and applications of biological concepts to the environment, Classification and inability to deal with simple mathematical computations in Biology.
Also at the Principal Pass level (A – E), there are improvements in History, Economics, Entrepreneurship Education, Geography and Art.
He said an analysis of the overall candidates’ performance in the examination shows that a very high percentage of candidates (99.2%) qualified for the award of the UACE, just as was in 2020.
At the minimum two Principal level required for University admission, 67,815 (70.3%) qualify compared to 69.8% in 2020.
In terms of numbers, this is slightly less than that of 2020, which was 68,013 candidates (69.8%), but this is consistent with the fact that there was a slight drop in entries for the examination in 2022, Odong said.
He added that in cases where one Principal and two Subsidiary passes levels are considered for admission to other tertiary institutions, 89.3% of the candidates will qualify. This is comparable to 2020.
A total of 97,890 candidates registered for the 2022 UACE examination from 1,969 centres compared to 98,392 candidates from 1,952 centres in 2020.
This is a decrease of 502 candidates (-0.5%). Candidates who appeared for the examination were 96,557, compared to 97,443 in 2020, a decrease of 878 candidates (-0.9%).
The number of candidates registered under the UPOLET programme was 17,321 (17.7%) of total candidature compared to 17,647 (17.9%) in 2020
Forty thousand, seven hundred thirteen (40,713) female candidates registered for UACE in 2022 compared to 41,190 in 2020.
Females constituted 41.8% of the total number of candidates who took the examination in 2022. While at UCE the proportion of females is very close to that of males (49.7:50.3), it is significantly lower at this level (41.8:58.2).
