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The Ministry of Education and Sports is set to release the national vocational examination results on Wednesday, March 27.

The results are of the Uganda Business and Examination Board (UBTEB) candidates who took the November/ December 2023 end of Programme Examinations at 624 examination centres across the country.

The number of candidates sitting the UBTEB exams increased by 58.6 percent compared to the previous year (2022), reflecting a growing appreciation for vocational studies in the country.

UBTEB last year attributed the development to several reasons, including the introduction of modularization in assessment in 2022 which brought about some flexibility in learning. 

Reports also indicate that the decentralized admissions of students taking on the national certificate, the national diploma, and the Uganda Community Polytechnic Certificate and the creation of several new sponsorship schemes by the government could have played a part. 

According to the board, 37,745 new candidates registered to sit the November/December 2023 examinations after the number of candidates increased to 102,132 from 64,387 during that period.

Of these candidates, 34,822 were female and 67,310 were male. The Board also registered a total of 481 candidates with special needs (298 male and 183 female) pursuing various Technical and Vocational Education Training Policy (TVET) professions.

Under the TVET 2019, the government of Uganda recognizes that effective technical skills are vital for the individual, enterprise, and the economy since they lead to self-reliance at the family level, increased productivity, profits, and higher incomes for the nation.  

This is in a bid to support the creation of needed employable skills and competencies relevant to the national transformational labour market as opposed to just the acquisition of educational certificates.