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The director of examinations at Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), Mike Nangosya, has said they recently received a report indicating that the students are excited about the new lower secondary school curriculum.

In August last year, UNEB began testing sample questions for the assessment under the new curriculum and the first group of O’level candidates will sit their final exams under this curriculum in October and November this year.

“We have received overwhelming feedback. Strangely, the learners are more excited. They feel this is the time for them to exhibit what they know. The report that we got from the learners indicated that this is the best curriculum and it gives them a chance to interact with the knowledge they acquire. The teachers did the same thing,” Nangosya told New Vision in an interview on Monday, March 11.

He noted that in early February 2024, they had an engagement with some of the curriculum implementers, the district education officers, and a few chief accounting officers.

“In that meeting, we learned that children are now more active. So, there is an opportunity in this new curriculum and for us at UNEB, we are preparing the processes and procedures to get this. The board is now ready to give the nation how we are going to assess. We started those processes,” he stated.

Nangosya also noted that the new curriculum, which was rolled out in 2020 to produce secondary school graduates with employable skills, was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that forced education institutions across the country to close for nearly two years.

“We are late but that came because of COVID-19 which affected us and the schools. So, if our teachers begin appreciating the pedagogical approach, the new way of teaching, then we see an opportunity for our learners to become problem solvers and innovators rather than people who can just remember stories about what they learned,” he said.

Change in assessment

UNEB is expected to collect continuous assessment scores from S.1 to S.4. According to the new curriculum, 20% of the final Uganda Certificate of Education results will come from the continuous assessment done by the schools and submitted to UNEB through a portal and the 80% will come from the final exam itself.

The new curriculum focuses on generic skills, including critical thinking, creativity, innovation, digital, literacy, numeracy, communication, problem-solving, collaboration, and self-directed learning.

“Competence-based assessment is about how one does something, how one perceives it, the values. As UNEB, we have been assessing cognitive, meaning the content you are taught at school you must remember it and tell us at the end of four years, but this time round you are not just going to remember it,” Nangosya said.

He said that between Senior Three and Senior Four, a student must be doing something that cumulatively forms part of the assessment and that the teacher must observe them do something.

“If you say you are doing a science practical and you are trying to do electricity, the teacher must see you carry through a process of how you will allow electricity to light this bulb but not remember how it is documented to light the bulb. So, the sample questions that we are sending into the field are to give a chance to schools to appreciate that there is going to be change in the assessment items,” he said.

The director also said questions will be framed in a way that requires candidates to use their skills and knowledge to solve problems.

“We are not going to set exams where a learner is asked to explain, examine, or discuss. Yes, we know you can explain or discuss, but now try to tell us that explanation to solve a problem that is occurring in our country. That is now where we are going in terms of those items,” he said.

Nangosya also gave an example of how they will be examining the candidates under the new curriculum.

“Yes, you know how photosynthesis takes place and you can explain it, but for us now we want you to interpret it in the sense of a real-life situation. When you plant a crop and it doesn't give you good yield, how do you relate to the knowledge that you have about photosynthesis?” he asked.