Allied health exams: 'Expired students' to be blocked

EDUCATION | UAHEB 

It is bad news for repeaters sitting for the Uganda Allied Health Examinations this year.

Candidates whose period to complete the course elapsed, their papers will not be marked, and they will not have their results, authorities have revealed.

In addition, the Uganda Allied Health Board (UAHEB) has deployed an electronic system which will identify candidates whose period for the course elapsed.

Such categories of students are called expired students.

According to the UAHEB curriculum structure, a student enrolling for a three year diploma course, has two additional years within which, he/she can complete the course.

For a two year course, a candidate also has two additional years within which the course can be completed.

Once, this time elapse, a candidate cannot continue with the same course, except when the candidates opts to start over again from the first year.

Joseph Agondua, the UAHEB Executive Secretary who confirmed the development, explained that all courses have a timeframe within which a student must complete.

"A diploma which takes three years, can only be finished in five years. A certificate which takes two years, has strictly four years to finish the course. These standards are not new, they have been in practice, just that most of principals often don't follow them," he said.

Going forward, he said, principals of at allied health institutions will be tasked to block expired students at registration.

Grace Aninge, the Principal of Gulu College of Heath Sciences, who is also the Chairperson of UAHEB Examination Committee, noted that such candidates shouldn't be registered, but they are often found into the system during marking.

"The UAHEB board agreed that expired students shouldn't be registered. We are now calling up principals not to register these students," she said.

They made the remarks on Saturday (November 28, 2020), at the UAHEB headquarters in Kyambogo, while addressing examination coordinators for the differed May/June examination, which starts today (Monday, November 30, 2020).

Merger

During his address, Agondua also informed the examination coordinators about the plans to merge UAHEB with the Uganda Nurses and Medical Examination Board (UNMEB), to form a Health Assessment Board.

He said that the plans are underway, and that the education ministry has consulted all the stakeholders on the mater.

"I know most of you have heard about the planned merger. It is no longer news, but we ask that you bear with us as government finalizes the plans. We will communicate to all our examination centers once the plans are concluded," he said.

He said the development of a bill, and relevant policies which assist the merger is underway and it is expected to be concluded before the next financial year, 2021/2022.

The merger of UAHEB and UNMEB is also spelt out in the Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) policy and it has since been approved by the Cabinet.

Examination

A total of 6,071 candidates pursuing for both diploma and certificate courses are setting for the deferred May/June examinations.

The candidates will be sitting from over 100 accredited centers.

About 200 examination scouts, coordinators, supervisors and invigilators have been deployed to man the examination.

These will be working along with the police who have been deployed across the country.

However, this time round, practicals which were to be done in hospitals, have been suspended by the Board due to the pandemic.

Instead, Agondua said, the Board has set structure objectives clinical examinations to replace the practicals.