Over 1,800 schools fail to submit S4 student’s scores — UNEB

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Thousands of Senior Four candidates from 1,834 secondary schools risk being ungraded over failure to submit their continuous assessment (CA) scores by the respective schools.

Data shared by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) indicates that only 56% of the 4,166 O’ level examination centres have submitted continuous assessment scores for candidates.

It should be noted that under the new lower secondary school curriculum, the continuous assessment scores, generated from school, form part of 20% of final scores at UNEB.

The other 80% will be attained through a national examination administered by UNEB.

Sources estimate that the number of senior four candidates without CA scores with UNEB is in the range of 100,000.  

If their respective schools fail to submit the data before October 30, 2024, a final deadline set by UNEB, they will be ungraded.

This implies that these will be required to repeat Senior Four next year because UNEB doesn’t give certificates to ungraded candidates, even if a candidate missed one paper.

UNEB boss speaks out  

While addressing journalists yesterday, Dan Odongo, the UNEB executive director, announced that the deadline has been extended from September 30 to October 30, 2024, to give ample time to schools to submit the scores.

He sounded a warning that “candidates whose CA scores will not have been sent within the new deadline, will be ungraded.”

According to UNEB, schools are required to submit CA scores online, through the school portal.

Odongo warned schools against delivery of the coursework assessment marks physically, by post or by courier because they shall not be accepted.

Submitting the coursework assessment marks online is intended to cure chances where schools and candidates claim to have submitted, and yet, they did not.

“UNEB has provided every school with a CD that has an offline software for capturing CA scores of the candidates and later submit them on the portal,” Odongo said.

He added: “UNEB has also trained 15 teachers in every school on how to compute and submit the scores. Concerned parties, including candidates and parents, should note that candidates without CA scores in any subject offered, and project work shall not be graded.”

He made the remarks last week at the Uganda Media Centre during the release of the UNEB time table for the 2024 examinations.

This year, UNEB will administer four examinations including the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examination based on the NLSC and the UCE (transitional examination) for repeaters based on the old curriculum.

UNEB will also administer the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examination, which completes the quadruple.

According to UNEB, UCE transitional examination based on the old curriculum is a one-off.

The 2024 examinations will start with UCE, whose candidates will be briefed on October 11 (for both new and old curriculum), PLE on November 4, and UACE on November 8.

(L-R) Esther Nagudi, the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) sign language interpreter, Rose Mukasa officer in charge of Primary Leaving Examination (PLE), James Tulyatemba the examination developer at UNEB, Dan Odongo, the Executive secretary of UNEB, and Grace Mbabazi, the principal examination officer at UNEB, displaying copies of 2024 UNEB timetables at the Uganda Media Centre. (Photo by Simon Peter Tumwine)

The 2024 numbers

A total of 22,110 examination centres will have candidates this year. Of these, 15,311 have registered candidates for PLE, 4,166 for UCE and 2,633 for UACE.

A total of 1,320,400 candidates from the above centres have been registered for this year’s examinations, a 7.8% increase compared to last year’s candidature of 1,224,371.

Of the total candidature, 51.1% are females while 48.9% are males.

A total of 369,477 candidates will write exams under the NLSC whereas 10,143 are repeaters who will write a transitional examination based on the old curriculum.

UNEB registered a significant increase in candidature at UACE with 142,017 candidates this year compared to 110,579 in 2023.

In addition, at PLE, there was a 6.6% increment in candidates from 749,371 in 2023 to 798,763 this year.

The number of Special Needs (SNE) candidates increased from 3,698 candidates in 2023 to 4,498 this year.

Of the total SNE candidates, 3,295 will write PLE, 760 registered for UCE- NLSC whereas 38 will write the transitional UCE- old curriculum.

There are 405 SNE candidates who registered for UACE this year.

According to UNEB data, the Luzira Upper and Mbarara Main prisons have registered a total of 108 Candidates for PLE, 39 for UCE.

Of the total candidature, 53% are funded by the Government under the universal education programmes while 47% are privately sponsored.

New examinable subjects

This year, under the NLSC, UNEB will set exams for a total of 36 subjects down from 46 subjects under the old curriculum.

There are new subjects and assessment modalities that will be examinable for the first time by UNEB.

This year, UNEB will examine learners for the Ugandan Sign Language (USL) with a total of 72 pioneer candidates, eight of whom are hearing learners.

In addition, Physical Education will be examined with a total candidature of 15,000 registered in 1,341 centres.

“In terms of assessment modalities, the board will assess learners’ achievements in listening and speaking for two of the foreign languages- Latin and Arabic,” Odongo said.

Adding that, “These were previously examined by only pen and paper. The other foreign languages will still be assessed in listening and speaking, with emphasis on the principles of fairness and evidence based assessment.”

A total of 4, 490 candidates have registered for the foreign languages including French, Arabic, Latin, German, and Chinese.

A total of 11 local languages will be assessed: Luganda, Lusoga, Runyo/Rutoro, Runyankore/Rukiga, Lumasasba, Ateso, Lugbara Ti, Leb Lango, Leb Acoli, and Dhopadhola and the USL.

Why schools have delayed

Didas Orikiriza, the executive director of National Private Education Institutions Association (NPEIA), largely blamed the delay by some schools on lack of training to assess and score learners’ achievements in schools.

“We have been telling you that schools are not prepared. The challenges that you see now are historical. They should have trained teachers from the start on the handling of the continuous assessment. It was never done,” he said.

“There was also confusion from the responsible institutions. The National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) developed a different criteria to assess learners.  UNEB also came with a different assessment criteria, which was even late. Of course all these have an impact on schools,” he said.

However, he also blamed the delay on private schools which are yet to receive centre numbers.

Having collected the data earlier, Orikiriza said, schools under this category had to submit the learners' data to new schools with UNEB center numbers.

The tabulation of the data into the new schools, he said, has also been tedious and thus delaying the sending of the continuous assessment scores by certain schools.

“It very tedious to transfer a learner from one school to another. Now you need the learners’ identification numbers, which are interlinked with the UNEB data. All these have an impact on the speed within which schools send data to UNEB,” he said.

Hajjat Zulaika Nabukeera, the general secretary of the Association of Secondary Schools Headteachers of Uganda (ASSHU) blamed the delay in submitting the learners' school scores on requirements by UNEB.

“If you recall, schools were required to submit the continuous assessment for both Senior Three and Senior Four classes of 2024. The exercise was big because you handled one student at a time and per subject. There are schools with huge enrollment and many could not beat the deadline,” she said.

However, Nabukeera, who doubles as the Headteacher for Nabisunsa Girls' School in Kampala, said the extension of the deadline will enable schools that have not submitted, to do so.

UNEB timetable

PLE exams will run for two days from November 6-7, UCE old curriculum will run for 26 days from October 14 to November 15, 2024 whereas UCE-NLSC will run for 20 days from October 14 to November 8, 2024.

On the other hand, the UACE exams will run for 20 days from November 11 to December 6, 2024.