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Live reporting by Joseph Kizza
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 1:40 PM 

🥂  Cheers!

Congratulations to everyone!
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 1:39 PM 

📝  How to access results

A reminder of what UNEB executive director Dan Nokrach Odongo said earlier today about how to access results.

He said heads of examination centres will be able to download the results as soon as the exams have been released. But for now, no hard copies are available. They will be available in the course of next week.

Odongo also said UNEB will send out a notice as soon as the hard copies are available for collection from the UNEB offices in Ntinda.

Candidates and their parents and any other person wishing to access the results may do so on their mobile phones. Go to message menu, type in UCE (leave space), type index number and send to 6600 on MTN and Airtel networks.

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 1:37 PM 

 BREAKING NEWS 

Minister releases 2023 UCE exam results

The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, releases the results of the 2023 UCE exams.

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 1:36 PM 

🗓️ S5 term one begins March 11

Mrs Museveni tells the public that:

▪️  Technical education selection for 2023 UCE leavers has been extended to end on February 23, 2024.

▪️  Selection for Senior Five will take place on February 26-27, 2024.

▪️  The first term for Senior Five begins on March 11, 2024.

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 1:35 PM 

'Time to seize other opportunities'

In her concluding remarks, the First Lady congratulates UNEB for successfully conducting the 2023 exams as well as the candidates who sat the exams and passed.

"For those who have not done well, an opportunity has been offered. There is also time to seize the other opportunities that are available to acquire skills for life."

She also thanks the teachers, the security agencies and all stakeholders that were involved in the successful execution of the exams.
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 1:33 PM 

On school fees issue

"As a ministry, we have received the broad direction from Cabinet regarding the need to implement free and compulsory UPE and USE free universal education, that means, for items that government is paying for," says the education minister.

"Learners in UPE and USE beneficiary schools shall not be expected to be charged school fees.

"One area that the government shall not be paying for is the cost of boarding accommodation, even if such a service is offered in a UPE- or a USE-implementing school and that is because there is not supposed to be boarding schools in universal education in all the schools we are building across the country. These are supposed to be day schools but sometimes some schools do turn them into boarding schools and government is not willing to pay for boarding schools.

"Cabinet also pronounced that all schools that receive public funds must implement free and compulsory universal education programmes as applicable. As a ministry, we shall have to hold conversations with the current 105 public secondary schools and 109 public primary schools that are recipient of public funds but have not  been implementing USE and UPE, respectively.

"Cabinet also went ahead to prescribe a list of 12 items which are categorized as not allowed to be charged as part of school fees in pre-primary and secondary schools, and these should be formally communicated to all schools by the Ministry of Education a nd Sports in the near future.

"Government shall start implementing free and compulsory UPE and USE in a phased manner, starting with UPE in 2024/2025 and for this, an additional resource of sh309.1 billion is required on top of the sh1.3 trillion that government already spends on UPE in 2022/2023."

The education minister says that the reason Government is focusing on free and compulsory UPE and USE "is to give an affordable option to our people who cannot afford the fees and charges in private schools".

In all this, she says that the Government is committed to ensuring quality of education in all schools, including those under the UPE and USE programme.
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 1:30 PM 

The First Lady hopes that the improved results seen this time in Biology will be sustained and further improved "because it is not yet at satisfactory levels".

"Improvements in teaching methods are a must, especially in the implementation of the competency-based curriculum."

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 1:29 PM 

"We have been guided by the technical teams in the ministries that having learners of the revised lower secondary curriculum progress into A'Level and utilize the existing advanced level curriculum does not in any way compromise their subject combinations.

"Furthermore, it does not jeopardize the academic grounding expected of them upon joining higher education.

"In a nutshell, let us first consolidate the implementation of the revised lower secondary curriculum before embarking on an overhaul of the A'Level curriculum."
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 1:27 PM 

On revising A'Level curriculum

So how far has the education ministry gone with reviewing the A'Level curriculum?

The education minister says they had started doing this already. "However, we later decided to slow down the pace and instead focus our attention, efforts and resources on consolidating the implementation of the revised lower secondary curriculum," she says.

"Since the 2019/2020 financial year to 2022/2023 alone, the government has invested at least sh130 billion in the development and rollout of the revised lower secondary curriculum.

"This excludes the initial funding injected in the earlier stages prior to 2019/2020 financial year.

"We still are in need of more resources to ensure that our schools are well acquainted with what it takes to implement the lower secondary curriculum the way it was designed to be implemented.

"Therefore, we believe that it is not wise to embark on another rigorous venture with full view of the O'Level curriculum in the environment of limited resources across the government.

"We cannot afford at this time to withdraw resources from the implementation of the newly introduced revised lower secondary curriculum. Doing that shall completely mess up both the new and the old."

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 1:23 PM 

Mrs Museveni is grateful to learn that UNEB has embarked on stakeholder engagement on the new competency-based curriculum.

"The revised lower secondary curriculum introduced a fundamental shift in methods of teaching and learning. So, creating awareness and getting the buy-in from all the persons whose involvement and participation is critical in its implemenation is essential," she says.
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 1:23 PM 

'Window of opportunity'

The education minister hails UNEB for ensuring that "we have a smooth transition from the closure of the old lower secondary curriculum end-of-cycle examinations" and goes on to "encourage all eligible persons who wish to repeat UCE under the old lower secondary curriculum to take this single window of opportunity in 2024 and register for UCE once UNEB makes that announcement".

"I want to make it categorically clear that the 2024 UCE exams will be based on the new lower secondary competency-based curriculum.

"Learners who are repeating UCE under the old lower secondary curriculum shall  not be subjected to the assessment and examination processes of the revised lower secondary curriculum and the UCE certificates shall clearly show this distinction."

For clarity, this means that if you repeat Senior Four under the old curriculum, your certificate will indicate 2023 and not 2024 because the curriculum is different.

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 1:21 PM 

Opportunity to repeat S4

"As a ministry, we do feel a sense of responsibility and obligation to the learners who were not successful in the UCE exams when the aggregates they got cannot afford them to progress to the next level," says Mrs Museveni.

"It is for this reason that we are providing an opportunity for them to repeat Senior Four.

"The ministry will communicate to all headteachers and collect the necessary information to enable us plan for the appropriate resources for those learners that shall be repeating from schools that are implementing the universal secondary education (USE) programme."

The First Lady adds that "as a ministry, we have agreed that these learners who are going to repeat Senior Four need ample time to prepare to retake the UCE in 2024 based on the old lower secondary curriculum".

"We have looked at all considerations and came to the agreement that no learner who is repeating S4 under the old lower secondary curriculum shall be disadvantaged in our transitional arrangements.

"Therefore, UNEB is going to further study this and formulate a roadmap which shall be communicated to the public once it is ready as soon as possible to enable preparations for those who are to repeat S4."

 WATCH   👇🏽


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 1:17 PM 

Decentralized admission process

The First Lady further says that the education ministry has adjusted the application and selection process for joining technical institutions by establishing a decentralized admission process.

"Therefore, I call upon headteachers, parents and the media to take more interest in how the decentralized technical admission process works so that you can be able to educate and guide our young people from an informed point of view.

"Most importantly, these guide young people whose results we are releasing today, that they are free to apply to any appropriate technical institution by picking and depositing the application form at the nearest TVET institution where one resides.

"The ministry has provided an extended selection exercise to cater for 2023 UCE leavers who would like to apply to technical education insitutions."

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 1:12 PM 

Asking the 'uncomfortable questions'

Mrs Museveni comments on the better performance [pass levels up and failure levels down], saying that "this welcome development must be sustained and further improved".

To improve this positive trend, she says, "we must gain a full understanding of what is driving the positive trend so that we really know what we are doing and what we will no longer accommodate".

She thinks out aloud thus:

▪️  Is it the effect of the abridged curriculum?
▪️  Has anything changed in the way teachers facilitate learning these days?
▪️  Has UNEB improved the design of exam questions to make them better understood by the candidates?

"These are all questions that need answers," she says, adding that to achieve improvements, "we must be bold and courageous enough to ask the uncomfortable questions".
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 1:08 PM 

'Logical and reasonable explanation'

More girls are now registering and sitting UCE, as is the observed trend in PLE.

"Much as we celebrate the turning of the tide to keep girls in school, we must find a logical and a reasonable explanation for the decline in the number of boys completing Primary Seven as well as Senior Four," says the First Lady.

Adding: "Because a society can only be holistically healthy when all boys and girls join the education system and complete the respective levels. We don't want to always have a disadvantage of one gender against the other. We want to have all our children go through education. That will make this country stronger."

 WATCH   👇🏽


"I thank UNEB for continuing to ensure that the government policy of inclusive education is supported through making adequate arrangements and provisions for our children with special educational needs to take the examinations," says Mrs Museveni.

"The examinations results show that given the right support, these learners will achieve at the same level as all the others with no disability will."
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 1:05 PM 

'We must lock out absenteeism'

First Lady and education minister Janet Museveni says: "As government, we are pleased to note the increase in candidature for the UCE together with the steady decline in the rate of absenteeism among the candidates who registered to sit their O'Level examinations."

She says, though, that "we must take keen interest in establishing what is causing this five-year-long reduction in absenteeism that we must forever lock out".

Mrs Museveni says once the driver of the positive trend of reduction in absenteeism has been figured out, then collective efforts towards that must be maintained to sustain the trend.

 WATCH   👇🏽


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 1:02 PM 

'You still have a bright future'

In further comments, Kaducu says "the universal education has seen more learners progressing from primary to secondary education, of which we are very grateful to our President".

She urges parents to "celebrate the joy of UCE examination results and achievements with your children. Even those who did not perform to your expectations, there is still hope to repeat or to progress further in their career through other tertiary institutions available in the country".

"To the candidates, please celebrate whatever result you have obtained. You worked tirelessly for those grades. You still have a bright future. I am appealing to you not to harm yourselves or terminate your precious God-given life because of bad grades."
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 12:59 PM 

'Breakthrough'

Kaducu says this is a "unique release of UCE results because this is the last cohort of learners who studied under the old lower secondary curriculum".

"The breakthrough we are celebrating today is a result of collaborative efforts of all stakeholders: teachers, learners, parents, UNEB officials, Parliament, security forces, Ministry of Education and Sports officials and our generous partners in education," she says.

She goes on to warn perpetrators of exam malpractice that "government of Uganda will not tolerate examination malpractices under all circumstances" and that "UNEB will ensure that the credibility of public examinations is maintained by putting all measures in place to sustain the gains we have made over the years".
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 12:57 PM 

'Another milestone'

Primary education state minister Joyce Moriku Kaducu is invited to deliver her remarks and then invite the education minister.

She says the release of the 2023 UCE exams is "another milestone in our country".
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 12:53 PM 

 BREAKING NEWS 

UNEB hands over results to minister

The UNEB chairperson and executive director hand over the 2023 UCE exam results document to the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, for release.

Soon, she will in turn release the results to the public.

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 12:49 PM 

Result queries

On submission of results queries, Odongo encourages heads of examination centres to "study the results slips that they will obtain and submit any queries that they may have to the board [UNEB] secretariat via their portals within 15 working days from today's date".
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 12:47 PM 

📝 Accessing results

Odongo says that heads of examination centres will be able to download the results as soon as the exams have been released.

For now, no hard copies are available. They will be available in the course of next week.

Odongo says they will send out a notice as soon as the hard copies are available for collection from the UNEB offices in Ntinda.

Candidates and their parents and any other person wishing to access the results may do so on their mobile phones. Go to message menu, type in UCE (leave space), type index number and send to 6600 on MTN and Airtel networks.
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 12:42 PM 

'Malpractice in Physics & Chemistry practicals'

Cases of exam malpractice "have continued to reduce", says Odongo.

"Most of the ones that were reported in the 2023 exams were external assistance given to the candidates inside the examination rooms and the most affected were Physics and Chemistry practical exams and Maths."

Odongo says the affected schools whose results are going to be withheld will be notified through their portals and will be also be notified of the dates of the hearing.
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 12:38 PM 

Deaf candidates 'at a disadvantage'

For the special needs education candidates, the physically handicapped, dyslexic and low vision candidates "do quite well", according to Odongo and co's observation.

"However, the deaf seem to be quite affected by their disability."

In 2023, the special needs education candidates performed "quite well, especially those with low vision. However, as observed at the primary education level, the deaf candidates appear to be at a more disadvantage by their disability. Of these, 57.7% obtained division four (the lowest division) and 25.4% did not pass".

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 12:35 PM 

Majority of inmates passed

UNEB has an examination centre at Luzira Prison for incarcerated inmates aimed at helping the Uganda Prisons Service to rehabilitate offenders.

In the 2023 UCE, the Luzira centre registered 59 candidates, including 51 males. All but one (a female) sat the exams.

Of all those that sat, six (all males) passed in division one, 14 (all males) passed in division two and 24 (21 males, 3 females) obtained division three, 13 (10 males, 3 females) passed in division four while one candidate failed.
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 12:31 PM 

Males performed better than females

Female candidates performed better than their male counterparts in English Language, a trend that continues to be observed, according to Odongo.

"In the other subjects, the males performed better, with the difference being very significant in History, Geography, the sciences and Commerce for this year.

"In Chemistry, the male candidates showed better performance in the higher grades but overall, there is a slightly higher percentage of the females that obtained at least a pass," says Odongo.

"This trend in the disparity in the performance of males and females has been observed over the years."

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 12:23 PM 

English, RE, Maths & Biology better

In English Language, 3.7% of the learners in the 2023 UCE exams obtained at least a distinction two, compared to 0.7% in 2022.

In CRE, 17.2% of the candidates obtained at least a distinction compared to 8.8% in 2022.

Generally, "there was a significant improvement in English Language, Religious Education, Maths and Biology", says Odongo, adding that cramming of texts in particularly English Language has "signficantly reduced".

"However, noticeable drops were recorded in History, Agriculture and Physics. Performance in the other subjects has remained comparable."

The UNEB ED adds that performance in science subjects "continues to be a cause for concern, with less than 20% of the candidates obtaining credit-level passes in Physics and Chemistry and 40% or more are unable to pass".

But there is an upturn in performance in Biology, which subject had been recording a steady decline in previous years.

Odongo says that examiners are pointing the low performance in sciences to such factors as "inadequate teaching that manifests in the inability of the candidates to master the basic scientific facts or concepts, lack of practical teaching that manifests in the learners' inability to manipulate science apparatus and carry out procedures as prescribed in the examination papers".

Odongo adds that "there are schools that have been reported to having no science teachers., which, if is true, exacerbates the problem".

He says that most of the exam malpractice cases that were seen in 2023 were in the science practical papers.

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 12:15 PM 

Better performance, failure rate drops

On general candidates' performance, 64,782 candidates (17.9%) that sat the 2023 UCE passed in the first grade or division one. This is compared to 46,667 (13.5%) in 2022.

Performance in the 2023 exams was "significantly better than that of 2022", says Odongo.

"The failure rate has also dropped by 0.5%. This means that 329,939 (95.9%) of the learners who presented themselves  for the 2023 exams can progress to the post-UCE level."
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 12:14 PM 

Special needs candidates

A total of 809 special needs education candidates (368 males and 441 females) registered for the 2023 UCE exams. This is in comparison with 721 in 2022 and which is an increase of 12.2% over the last year.

These special needs education candidates included the blind, low vision, deaf, dyslexic, physically handicapped and others "that did not require specific interventions except to be given extra time".

Only 12 of these did not appear for the exam.
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 12:11 PM 

Abseentism continues to drop

In the last five years, we learn from Odongo, abseentism "has been steadily decreasing except for 2022 when there was a slight increase, but has now come down quite well".
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 12:10 PM 

More candidates actually sat exams

In 2023, Odongo says, 361,695 candidates (197,032 males and 182,663 females) appeared for the UCE exams compared to a total of 345,695 candidates in 2022.

It is an increase of 16,000 (4.6%) candidates.

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 12:09 PM 

Increase in candidature

Odongo says that candidature increased by 4.3% from 349,459 in 2022 to 364,469 in 2023 in 3,808 examination centres.

(Note that UNEB had earlier posted on X ahead of the release a reverse of this comparison.)

"Of these candidates, 118, 633 (32.5%) were the beneficiaries of the government's universal secondary education (USE) programme," says the UNEB ED.

Registered males were 180,471 (49.5%) and females were 183,998 (50.5%). That means there were 3,527 more females than males registered.
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 12:06 PM 

Dan Nokrach Odongo, UNEB executive director, is up next to provide the release statement.

He says the 2023 UCE exams were conducted "successfully" from October 13 until November 17, 2023.
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 12:04 PM 

Hearing of cases begins Feb 19

Obua says the hearing of cases of alleged exam malpractice for the 2023 PLE and UCE will begin on February 19.

Under Section 5 (2) of the UNEB Act, 2021, the exams board has the powers to withhold results of any candidate while conducting investigations on alleged, reported or proven malpractice against any school, examination centre or person.

UNEB can withhold the exam results until the investigations are concluded, according to the law.
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 12:01 PM 

'UNEB ready for new curriculum exams'

Obua says that sample papers for exams for the new lower secondary curriculum have been prepared and arrangements are being made to share them with examination centres.

He says that UNEB will be ready to administer the October-November UCE exams under the new competency-based curriculum.
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 11:56 AM 

'Reduction in absenteeism'

First up is UNEB chairperson Prof. Celestino Obua, who is invited to deliver his opening remarks.

He says that the exams were conducted "smoothly throughout the country", adding that UNEB noted "continuous reduction in absenteeism", increase in candidature as well as more girls than boys registered.

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 11:51 AM 

 BREAKING NEWS 

Release of exam results event begins

The function of the release of the 2023 UCE exam results is under way at State House Nakasero.

The weather is a bit moody today. Good enough it's only a harmless drizzle.

Anthems first, followed by an opening prayer.

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 11:33 AM 

In 2022, a total of 349,459 registered for the examination from 4,185 examination centres. This was as compared to 333,396 candidates that registered for the previous UCE examination of 2020, indicating an increase of 16,063 in candidature.

In 2022, 50.3% of the registered candidates were males, while 49.7% were females.

Today, UNEB executive director Dan Nokrach Odongo is expected to reveal the number of the candidates that actually sat for the UCE examination in 2023 compared to those that registered for the same.

He will also tell us the general comparative performance, and performance by gender.
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 11:26 AM 

🌧️ Arrivals and settling in

We have a drizzle today as the officials arrive at State House Nakasero for the event.

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 11:19 AM 

Any time from now, this much-anticipated function will be getting under way at State House Nakasero in Uganda's capital.

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 10:58 AM 

It’s your moment to shine!

To the 2023 UCE achievers, feel free to share your top results with New Vision for a chance to be featured in New Vision FOR FREE. Send aggregate (8-11), index number, school, and photo to news@newvision.co.ug or contact using the numbers on the poster. 

Let's celebrate your success together!

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 10:45 AM 

📍 All set

The venue — State House Nakasero — is set on a rather overcast Thursday morning.

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 10:42 AM 

On Wednesday, primary education state minister Joyce Moriku Kaducu told Parliament that the pioneer cohort of the new lower secondary curriculum will sit their end-of-cycle exams this November.
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 10:40 AM 

Competency-based assessment

Last week, UNEB engaged local government officials on the competency-based assessment under the new lower secondary school curriculum (NLSC).

The officials included 200 DEOs, MEOs, CEOs and CAOs.

UNEB said on social media platform X that the meeting held at its Kyambogo office was the first in the series of stakeholder engagements, ahead of the competency-based assessment (CBA) under the NLSC that begins this year.  

The local government officials are understood to have committed to "fully support the processes" and "pledged their support to work with UNEB and all the other stakeholders  to ensure that the competency-based assessment is carried out successfully".

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 10:35 AM 

When she released the 2023 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) results exactly three weeks ago (January 25), education minister Janet Museveni said the major COVID-19 recovery intervention is the implementation of the abridged curriculum.

"I have been informed by the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) that the P7 and S4 cohorts of 2024 are the last classes of learners utilizing the abridged curriculum," she said at the time.

"Thereafter, we shall be using the full primary school curriculum and the revised O'Level curriculum after this year."

Read more of what the education minister said here.

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 10:33 AM 

Out with the old, in with the new

Meanwhile, the 2023 candidates were the last cohort of learners that sat for the UCE  examination under the old lower secondary curriculum.  

During today's exam results release, national exams body UNEB will announce arrangements to facilitate the smooth transition from the old to the new lower secondary curriculum.
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 10:30 AM 

Good morning

Hello everyone. This morning (February 15), Uganda's Minister of Education and Sports will officially release the results of last year's (2023) Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) — O'Level — exams at State House, Nakasero in Kampala.

'Will be bringing to you live text updates from the event right here on this page.

The release of these UCE results follows a briefing session by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) to the education minister, which happened on Wednesday.