UACE: Biology Worst Performed Subject As 99.2 Percent Of Candidates Qualify For Certificates

The Ministry of Education and Sports on Friday morning released the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) results.

UNEB chairperson Prof. Mary Okwakol and Executive Director Daniel Odongo presented the UACE 2022 results to Hon John Chrysostom Muyingo the State Minister for higher education who represented the Minister for Education Janet Kataha Museveni. 

According to the Uganda National Examinations Board Uneb, a total of 97,890 candidates registered for the 2022 UACE across 1,969 centres,  compared to 98,392 candidates from 1,952 centres in 2020.

Uneb Executive Director Daniel Odongo revealed that 96,557 candidates sat examinations last year compared to 97,443 in 2020, a decrease by 0.9 percent. 17,321 candidates sat under governments free education program Upolet.

A total of  222 candidates with special needs including the deaf, blind, physical impairments also sat examinations compared to 208 who sat in 2020.

Forty thousand, seven hundred thirteen (40.713) female candidates registered for UACE 2022 compared to 41,190 in 2020.

Female entries for the Sciences and Mathematics have remained lower than that of the males, consistent with the fact that overall female entry is lower than that of the males. Candidature was 29.6% for Mathematics, 6.1%% for Physics, 16.5% for Chemistry; and 15.9%% for Biology.

Performance

An analysis of the overall performance in the examination shows that  (99.2%) qualified for the award of the UACE certificate.

According to Okwakol, the performance of the candidates has improved with candidates obtaining 3 Principal passes and 2 principal.

Females performed better at all levels with 48.6 percent scoring 3 Principal Passes as compared to 40.1 percent for their male counterparts in the same score.

Better performances were also reported in subjects like History, Economics,Geography, Art and Entrepreneurship.

Performance in Biology has again dropped below the 2020 level where it had risen. Examiners have attributed this to candidates having problems in questions on Genetics, Ecology and applications of biological concepts to the environment, Classification.

A report from UNEB indicates that Mathematics and Chemistry saw an overall improvement at A pass level while Physics had a drop at A but remained comparable at other levels.

“In sciences, evidence of theoretical teaching with little practical experience given to the candidates was observed at many centres. As a result, candidates who performed poorly showed the inability to follow instructions and procedures during the practical examinations and failed to accurately record data or even make meaning of any of the data recorded. They had difficulty in writing the language of Chemistry using the correct chemical symbols and balanced equations”, Odongo said.

“In accordance with Section 4 (3) of the UNEB Act, 2021, the Board, has withheld results of 113 candidates, and will accord the affected candidates a fair hearing before passing a final verdict”