UNEB allows schools to correct errors in candidates' register

Parents and headteachers have been asked to cross-check the displayed registers for the candidates who are set to sit for their final examinations, to ensure that the errors are sorted out in time. 

The executive secretary of Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), Dan Odongo, in a statement released yesterday evening said: "Headteachers are required to display the draft registers and albums to enable candidates to verify their registration data. This will go on until the end of the term."

Odongo said in case of any errors, "Amendments can be effected at UNEB. They should specifically look out for errors with respect to names and photographs of candidates, spellings and order of names, gender, year of birth, subjects and papers offered by the candidates, institutional choices and funding code." 

He also re-iterated the registration of candidates had closed. 

Odongo noted that the number of candidates had slightly increased from the earlier figure of 1,180,998, to 1,181,666; who have been registered at the Primary Seven, Senior Four, and Senior Six levels. 

This is a higher number, compared to the 1,138,000 candidates who registered for the final examination in 2019. Even with the disruption of the academic year by the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of candidates has gone up. 

Of the registered candidates, 749,518 are for Primary Leaving Examinations. There are more 333,231 students for the Uganda Certificate of Education and 98,249 students registered for the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education.

Amidst the COVID-19 era, there was fear that few students would manage to register for national examinations. 

According to Odongo, this has certainly been a successful exercise. 
He said the PLE registered candidates, for instance, had exceeded the projected number of 720,000 candidates.

The high number of students who have registered, Odongo said, is a mark of achievement especially after the schools had closed for six months. 

When President Yoweri Museveni ordered the immediate closure of all schools and educational institutions to curb the spread of COVID-19, an estimated 15 million learners in 73,240 institutions and 548,192 teachers were affected for about three months.

Breakdown of registered students

Odongo explains that out of the registered PLE candidates, 53 % are females, while 50.3% of the UCE candidates are females.  At UACE level, 42% of the registered candidates are females. 

Odongo said UNEB validated and accredited 457 new examination centres. These include 100 centres for both UCE and UACE candidates and 357 for PLE. 
"This brings the total of our examination centres to 19,812. Out of these, 13,971 are PLE Centres, 3,662 are UCE while the UACE Centres are 2,179," he said.

Students started registering for UNEB on October 22 and the process ended on November 30; according to the final calendar released by the First Lady and education minister, Mrs. Janet Museveni, at the beginning of October this year. 

The calendar shows that the briefing of students will be on February 26, and the Uganda Certificate of Education examinations will start on March 1, 2021, to April 6, 2021. 

More so, Mrs Museveni said the briefing of candidates in Primary Seven will be on March 26 and they will later sit for their examinations on March 30-31, 2021. 

The briefing for Senior Six candidates will follow on April 9 and they will sit for examinations from April 12 to May 3, 20121.

The state minister for higher education, Dr. John Chrysostom Muyingo, thanked parents for having paid attention to registration. 

"This is a positive step forward in ensuring that we can normalise the learning and assessment process in the country's education sector, amidst the COVID-19 era," he said. 

He called upon the parents to check the registers to avoid "last-minute complaints that their children were not registered."
 
Follow up 

After the registration of candidates, Odongo said: "We have asked schools to display the draft registers and albums to enable candidates to verify their registration data."