A'level result slips for 2013 ready - UNEB

By Innocent Anguyo           

KAMPALA - Result slips for last year’s Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations are ready for collection at the Uganda National Examinations (UNEB) headquarters in Ntinda, Kampala.

A total of 116,027 candidates sat for their Senior Six (A’level) national examinations in November and December last year.

Speaking to New Vision, UNEB spokesman Hamis Kaheru revealed that the UACE result slips have been neatly packaged in special parcels, awaiting collection by the various examination centres.       

“The head teachers can now come and collect the result slips for UACE. We have finished processing, printing and packing the documents,” he said.

Meanwhile, the slips for last year’s Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) and Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations are being printed.       

UNEB plans to finalize the processing, printing and packaging of these other two sets by the end of this week so that students can receive the documents as soon as possible.

‘Procurement’ setback

A total of 581,586 Primary Seven pupils sat their PLE in November last year and 295,472 Senior Four candidates did the UCE examinations in October and November of the same year.

The issuance of result slips for last year’s national examinations comes more than eight months after the results for the same assessment were released by Education Minister Jessica Alupo.
 

true
Students queue up for admission at Makerere University in 2011. During the latest university admissions, students had to use alternative documents due to the delay of release of result slips. PHOTO/Nicholas Oneal

In the past, UNEB has been issuing the slips together with the [assessment] results.  Kaheru attributed the delay in the release of the slips, this time round, to “challenges in the procurement process”.

The national assessment body three months ago suspended the initial process to procure paper meant to print the result slips.

“We undertook an administrative review of procurement and had to start the whole process afresh because we had hitches in the initial one,” said Kaheru.

Alternatives

But he could not reveal the kind of snags encountered by the examinations body in the initial procurement process.           

The failure of UNEB to issue UACE result slips in time earlier this year forced students to seek alternative documents to obtain admission to universities.

Universities were asking for proof of qualification for higher education as a prerequisite for consideration for admission.

Thousands of students had to dig deeper into their pockets to obtain the relatively pricey Letters of Verification of Results (LVR) from UNEB that were being issued as alternative to the results slips.          

UNEB charges sh30, 000 to process an ordinary LVR, while the unique one is priced at sh50, 000. The unique version is a hard card similar to the original certificate.           

However, parents accused UNEB of “double robbery”, on grounds that students had already paid for results slips.

UNEB charges registration fees of sh85, 000 for Senior Four exams and sh95, 000 for Senior Six exams.