The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has released sample papers for the Uganda Certificate of Education competency-based assessment under the new lower school curriculum.

In a statement dated March 25, 2024, UNEB executive director Dan Odongo states that the purpose is to expose both teachers and learners to the question format of competency-based assessment. Each paper has a corresponding scoring guide.

The sample papers cover 36 subjects in the categories of humanities, sciences, vocational and languages.

“The sample papers can now be accessed via the UNEB portal by all UNEB examination centres. UNEB will distribute hard copy booklets to schools without centre numbers,” Odongo said.

UNEB called upon teachers to familiarise themselves with the sample papers, guide the learners and come up with similar or related scenarios and questions to expose the learners to a variety of test items.

The Ministry of Education and Sports through the National Curriculum Development Center introduced a competence-based curriculum in secondary schools in 2020 and has since held training sessions for teachers across the country on how to implement the new curriculum.

The Competency Based Assessment emphasises learner-centred pedagogies and the integration of technological and practical innovations in the teaching/learning process.

The 2020 secondary school Language Competence-Based Curriculum replaced the 2008 Integrated English teaching syllabus that emphasised the use of integration at either subject or unit level as opposed to the teaching of language in isolated compartments like grammar, vocabulary, comprehension or writing.