UCE 2023: 96% of the candidates passed their S4 exams, says UNEB

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has revealed that there was a significant improvement in performance of candidates who sat their Uganda Examinations Certificate (UCE) last year compared to 2022.

While announcing results on Thursday, February 15,2023, UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo revealed that candidature increased by 15,009(4.3%) from 349,459 in 2022 to 364,469 in 2023.

“The candidates sat from 3,808 examination centres. Of these candidates, 118,633(32%) were USE beneficiaries,” he said.

Of these, 64,783 passed in division one, 85,66 in division two, 83,545 in division three and 112,923 in division four whereas 14,879 failed the examinations.

According to Odongo, performance in the sciences continues to be a concern with less than 20% of the candidates obtaining credit pass levels in physics and chemistry, and 40% or more unable to pass.

“Examiners have attributed the low achievement levels in science subjects to a number of factors, main among which are inadequate teaching, manifesting in the ability of the learners to master the basic scientific concepts,” he explained.

He further revealed that female candidates performed better than males in English whereas males performed better in all the other subjects.

“In other subjects, males performed better with the differences being very significant in Geography, history, the Sciences and commerce. In chemistry, however, the male candidates showed better performance in the higher grades but, overall, a slightly higher percentage of females obtained at least a pass,” he noted.

Odongo said that the disparity in the performance of male and female candidates has been observed over the year.

A total of 809 special needs education candidates made up of 368 males and 441 females registered for the 2023 UCE compared to 720 in 2022.

“These consisted of various groups, the blind, the low vision, the deaf, the syslexic, physically handicapped, and then other that did not require specific interventions except to be given extra time,” he noted.

UNEB Chairperson Professor Celestino Obua noted that this is the last examination administered under the old curriculum.

“From 2024 October/November examination, the UCE will be administered in accordance with the new lower secondary curriculum. In the past, candidates who would not have made it in an examination such as this one would repeat the examination in the following examination season. This will not be possible this time; as the examination format and other conditions will be drastically different,” he explained.

Obua added that the board has completed work on the sample papers for the examination under the new curriculum, and arrangements are being made to upload the papers on the school portals, ”hard copies will aslo be availed to all examination centres,” he said.