79% pass allied health examinations

The assistant commissioner of Vocational Education James Mugerwa (left), Stephen Patrick Ssenoga (centre) and Minister John Chrysostom Muyingo (right) during the release of UAHEB results. Photo by Shamim Saad

Out of the 3, 313 students who sat for the Allied Health Examinations for various programmes leading to the award of diplomas and certificates, 2,650 (79.9%), passed while 663 failed.

Speaking during the release of the results at the Uganda Allied Health Examination Board (UAHEB) offices in Kyambogo, yesterday, Kato Kimoga the board's executive secretary said that the failure was caused by a misinterpretation of questions by candidates.

He said that out of those who passed, 1,754 were male while 896 were female. Under the post-basic diploma courses, 140 sat for the examinations, 108 passed while 32 failed.

A total of 1,652 sat for the basic diploma exams, 1,270 passed while 382 failed.  Under the certificate programme, 1,521 sat for the exams, 1,272 passed and 249 failed.

"The examination processes went on smoothly with minimal cases of examination malpractices," he said.

However, he noted that though this is there first examination results under the new competency-based curriculum, there is a 12.8% decline in performance as compared to the 2015/16 results.

According to the chairperson of UAHEB, Patrick Stephen Ssenoga, the assessment process under the new curriculum involved school-based assessments, field attachment, hospital attachment assessment, general practical and theory and research reports.

He expressed concern over the declining number of female students applying for the allied courses and said that they are devising affirmative means to address it.

In his remarks as the guest of honour, John Muyingo the minister of state for higher education urged UAHEB to put more emphasis on churning out quality graduates instead of quantity, stating that theirs is a profession which has no room for errors.

"Never compromise quality or lower grades to benefit your relatives or children. Put more emphasis on quality, standards, ethics and commitment. These are professions where we cannot accept mistakes or errors.  Yours is a profession where a mistake can cause death," he said.

Muyingo also launched the new modified examination rules and regulations