Isaac Khisa
9 November 2009
Kampala — A total of 97,679 Senior 6 candidates will today start sitting this year's Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations. There is an increase of more than 10,000 candidates compared to last year.
They will sit the Economics P220/1 in the morning and Economics P220/2 in the afternoon, before being examined in History P210/3 and History P330/1 tomorrow. UACE exams will end on November 25 with a Business Entrepreneurship paper. The students were briefed on Friday last week. Uganda National Examinations Board secretary Mr Mathew Bukenya told Daily Monitor last week that the board maintains its stand of punishing those caught involving in malpractices.
He said that the lowering of requirements for admission to universities has reduced cheating in UACE exams. "In the past we used to have only Makerere University and the points were too high, something that forced students to cheat to get higher points for admission," Mr Bukenya said. "But with the large number of private universities that have come up, students no longer do that because they know after getting two principal passes, they will be admitted." He however said a few private schools cheat to attract new students.
The last UACE examination results showed a slight improvement in the overall performance of candidates compared to that of the previous year. 86, 632 candidates sat for the examination last year and performed poorly in science subjects - Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and Physics. Many of the 2008 A-level candidates lacked proficiency in English, the official language of instruction, resulting into students misfiring of questions and recording jumbled answers.
Science students could not use correct scientific terminology, failed to write complete and balanced equations and were ignorant of correct symbols and formulae. They also failed to draw accurate specimens. Results of 73 candidates were nullified for a range of examinations malpractices, including smuggling unwanted materials, impersonation and benefitting from external assistance.
The integrity of the national examinations, that was shattered in the 1990s and early 2000 by repeated leak of examination papers have been restored through stiff inspection, citizens' vigilance and tough penalties. However, out of 89, 921 students who registered for the 2008 examinations, 1, 458 never sat the papers for reasons ranging from early expulsion from school for defaulting on tuition, ill health and negligence.
Meanwhile, in the just concluded Primary Seven examinations, four soldiers were arrested in connection with impersonation in Mubende district. This emerged when names on the identity cards didn't reflect those in the examination register.
Further, another seven teachers were arrested from Kakindu Primary School in Myanzi sub-county following a complaint that two question papers had gone missing on the first day of the examinations. No cases of exam malpractices have been recorded in the ongoing Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations that end this week.
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