KAMPALA – Uganda National Examination Board – Uneb released the 2022 Uganda Certificate of Education – UCE results this Thursday – indicating a significant improvement in performance in comparison to students who sat in 2020.
The Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Kataha Museveni presided over the function – at least two weeks after discharging the PLE results at State House -Nakasero.
Releasing the UCE exam results at State House – Nakasero – the Uneb Executive Director, Dan Odongo revealed that out of 345,945 candidates who had registered for the examinations – 345,695 appeared for the final papers.
Of that number, 46,667 passed in division one; 76,745 in second division; 88,690 in third division; and 117,837 passed in division four.
Up to 15,756 failed the examinations and are expected to repeat senior four if they wish to proceed to senior five, according to Odongo – who further revealed that there, had been an improvement in performance in the large entry subjects except in Christian Religious Education, Biology and Commerce. Mathematics showed better performance at the Distinction level, but declined overall.
English Language improved at credit and overall pass levels but declined at the distinction level.
Performance in Biology continued to decline as has been the case in the last few years.
Performance in Physics and Chemistry improved – although the overall pass levels were still low. Over 40% of the candidates did not pass the two subjects.
This year also marked the first time the board examined Chinese Language.
Odongo noted that total of 134 candidates sat and 124 (92.5%) of them had passed. The language is in addition to other major languages including French, German, Arabic, Latin and Kiswahili – which have been examined in the past.
Candidature increased by 16,063 (4.8%) from 333,396 in 2020 to 349,459, in 2022 reversing the decrease of 4,324 (-1.3%) that had been witnessed in the previous examination.
The candidates had sat from 3,703 centres – and of these, 114,181 (32.7%) were USE beneficiaries.
The number of male candidates registered was 175,768 (50.3%) and that of females was 173,691 (49.7%) – making a difference of 2,077 more males than females who registered for the examination. In 2019, the number of females had surpassed that of the males, for the first time, by 398.
Odongo said that examiners had reported better quality work in the English Language. However, in composition writing, where candidates were expected to exhibit creativity and originality, learners in some schools were still cramming passages from textbooks in what they call ‘model compositions’ with unusual and difficult vocabulary. They then, would reproduce the crammed passages irrespective of what the composition topic was. This practice was, fortunately, declining, because candidates who did would be punished.
“In the Comprehension passage, candidates found difficulty in extracting appropriate information to use to correctly answer the questions based on the passage. There were also weaknesses in using the correct grammar in sentence construction.
“The essential skill of extracting main ideas from a passage and writing out a coherent summary presents a major challenge to most candidates,” noted Odongo.
According to him, the challenge of language deficiency was reflected in performance in other subjects, where Chief Examiners continued to report failure by the candidates to interpret the demands of the tasks set; failure to follow instructions; misunderstanding key words used in the stem of a question; and generally poor language expression. 
A total of 1,035 results have been withheld in accordance with Section 5 (2) (b) of the Uneb Act No 1 of 2021. The number of results to be withheld has been reducing steadily at this level.
Uneb Examination centres from which results are withheld will be notified through their portals, according to Odongo.
Odongo said heads of UCE examination Centres may download the results from their portals as soon as the results are officially out.
“No hard copy result lists will be issued from Uneb offices until conditions are more favourable. Examination centres will be notified accordingly,” said Odongo.
Candidates or any other concerned parties wishing to access the results may do so through their mobile phones. Go to the ‘Message’ menu and type UCE, leave space, then type the correct index number of the candidate; e.g. U1111/010 – and send to 6600 on one’s preferred network.
