40% fail exam technical examinations

Feb 24, 2010

ALMOST half of the students who sat for technical and vocational examinations last year failed. The results, released by the national examinations body, UNEB, were for junior technical education certificates and technical education certificates.

By Conan Businge

ALMOST half of the students who sat for technical and vocational examinations last year failed. The results, released by the national examinations body, UNEB, were for junior technical education certificates and technical education certificates.

On average, only 60% of both levels of technical education passed last year’s national examinations.

Of the 6,687 candidates who sat for junior technical examinations, 63% passed. Most of the students who passed under this category were at credit and pass levels.

For technical examinations, only 57% of the 7,288 students passed. In total, 13,975 students sat for examinations under the two categories.

The junior technical education is a course undertaken by students who have completed primary education while technical education is for O’level holders.

Performance in technical examinations declined compared to the June 2009 results when 58% passed. For the junior technical education certificate, there was an improvement in performance since only 54% passed in 2008.

The results were released yesterday at Nakawa Vocational Institute by UNEB secretary Matthew Bukenya in the presence of education state minister Rukutana Mwesigwa.

Bukenya attributed the poor performance in junior technical education to lack of competent teachers, inadequate materials and facilities for practical lessons, and inadequate syllabus coverage.

Records show that on average 25% of all the institutions do not have adequate equipment and facilities for practicals.
Under technical examinations, Bukenya said a lot of improvement was needed in tailoring, cutting garments, mechanical engineering, plumbing, radio and television, carpentry and joinery, and motor vehicle.

Another reason for the high failure rate is lack of funding. Business, technical and vocational education receives the lowest budget of all education sectors in Uganda; only sh6b was allocated last financial year. In comparison, pre-primary received sh21b and secondary education sh39b.

However, minister Mwesigwa said the Government plans to reverse the trend. “This country today needs job creators more than job- seekers. Government has decided to refocus attention,” he said.

Results released by the national examinations body show that under technical education, 10% of the 140 students who sat for the radio, television and electronics course scored distinctions. This was followed by leather tanning and shoe making, with one student out of 15 scoring distinctions.

Carpentry and joinery, and motor vehicle maintenance have failure rates of above 50%. There were only three cases of examination malpractices last year and their results were cancelled.

Bukenya also noted that more needed to be done to attract girls to join technical schools. The number of female candidates who sat last year decreased while the number of boys increased.

(Additional reporting by: Raymond Baguma, Ann Mugisa, Juliet Waiswa, Stella Naigino, Brian Mayanja and Justus Akampa)

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