The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has released the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) results for 2023 at State Lodge Nakasero.
The UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo revealed that male candidates performed better than their female counterparts.
“Female candidates performed better than males in English Language. In the other subjects, males perform better, with the differences being very significant in History, Geography, the Sciences and Commerce. In Chemistry, however, the male candidates show better performance in the higher grades but, overall, a slightly higher percentage of females obtained at least a Pass. This trend in the disparity in the performance of male and female candidates has been observed over the years,” Odongo said.
“There is a significant improvement in English Language, Religious Education, Mathematics and Biology. Noticeable drops were recorded History, Agriculture and Physics. Performance in the other subjects have remained comparable. In English language, the presentation of crammed passages from texts in response to the question on original composition writing has greatly reduced, which may explain the significant improvement in the candidate.”
Odongo also expressed concern over the poor performance in science subjects, with less than 20 per cent of the candidates obtaining Credit pass levels in Physics and Chemistry, and 40 per cent or more unable to pass.
“It is worth noting, however, the upturn in performance in Biology, which has been recording a steady decline. Examiners have attributed the low achievement levels in science subjects to a number of factors, main among which are inadequate teaching, manifesting in the inability of the learners to master the basic scientific concepts; lack of practical teaching, manifesting in the learners’ inability to manipulate science apparatus and carry out the procedures prescribed in the examination papers and interpret any readings or observations that could have been made. There are schools that have been reported to have no science teachers, which exacerbate the problem. Most of the examination malpractice cases at this level are in the practical papers.”
Meanwhile, 364,469 candidates sat for the UCE exams in 2023 from 3,808 examination centres. Of these candidates, 118,633 (32.5%) were USE beneficiaries. The number of male candidates registered was 180,471 (49.5%) and that of females was 183,998 (50.5%).
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