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Top schools have raised their cut-off points for admission to Senior Five this year.

This was disclosed on Monday, February 26, by the head teachers of different schools during the selection placement exercise for Senior Five students at Uganda Manufacturer's Association (UMA) grounds in Kampala.

A cross section of teachers during the senior five selection exercise at UMA showgrounds on 26th Feb 2024. (Photo by Juliet Kasirye)

The head teachers attributed the hike in Senior Five entry points to improved performance in last year's O level examinations.

“The children performed well in last year’s examinations and the number of applicants are many than the previous years,” Tororo Girls School head teacher Consy Aloyo said.

Nabisunsa Girls stopped at 13, compared to aggregate 15 last year. King’s College Budo cut off points at 8 for boys and 9 for girls. Last year, Budo stopped at aggregate 9 for boys and 10 for girls.

Kawempe Muslim cut off at 17 for boys and 18 for girls, compared to last year when it stopped at aggregate 18 for boys and 21 for girls.

In the Ordinary level certificate examinations, the best candidates score aggregate eight in eight subjects.

Failure rate drops by 0.5%

Performance in the 2023 examinations is significantly better than that of 2022, with the failure rate dropping by 0.5%,” the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) executive director, Dan Odongo, has revealed.

According to Odongo, this implies that 329,939 (95.9%) of the learners who presented themselves for the 2023 examination can progress to the post-UCE level.

According to UNEB, the candidature increased by 15,008 (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 (32.5%) were USE beneficiaries. The number of male candidates registered was 180,471 (49.5%) and that of females was 183,998 (50.5%). There were 3,527 more females than males who registered for the examination.

Special needs education

UNEB also disclosed that a total of 809 Special Needs Education candidates (368 males and 441 females) registered for the 2023 UCE examination compared to 721 in 2022.

This, according to Odongo, is an increase of 12.2% over last year. These consisted of the blind (35), low vision (183), deaf (71), dyslexics (90) and physically handicapped (79).

There were 351 others with other forms of disability that only needed to be given extra time. Only 12 (1.5%) candidates were absent.