The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has released the results for the 2022 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) indicating a significantly improved performance from the previous year.
Of the 345, 695 candidates who sat the Senior Four exams, 46,667 passed in Division 1 (13.5%) compared 12.1% in the 2020 exams.
Those who passed in Division 2 were 22.2% compared to 21.2% in the previous exams.
In terms of subject performance, Mr Dan Odongo, the UNEB Secretary announced that English language was the best performed, where also the female candidates edged their male counterparts.
Other subjects where candidates recorded improved performance according to Mr Odongo, include Islamic Religious Education, Geography, Agriculture, Physics and Chemistry.
Mr Odongo noted that the slight improved performance in Physics and Chemistry, although the overall pass level in both subjects remains low, with up to 40% of the candidates completely failing them.
There was also slightly improved performance in Mathematics at Distinction level but with a decline in the credit and pass levels compared to last year
In terms of Gender, Mr Odongo says the male candidates outperformed their female colleagues
“We had 15.5% of the male candidate passing in Division One compared to 11.5 for the females. In Division 2, the Males were 23.3% and females 21%. The female numbers start to come up at the lower credit and pass levels” he said.
The females, however, appeared to edge their male counterparts in a few subjects including English and Chemistry.
The 2022 UCE exams held between 17th to 18th November last year, were set under the new abridged curriculum.
But according to Mrs Mary Okwakol, the UNEB Chairperson, this did not seem to affect the overall performance.
Mrs Okwakol also noted that there was a significant decline in the number of candidates taking part in exam malpractice compared to the previous year.
Most of the external assistance given by third parties were witnessed mostly in Physic practical and mathematics papers.
The exams also for the first time included Chinese Language which was recently added to the examinable foreign languages of Swahili, French, German, Arabic and Latin
The number of special needs candidates also grew from 519 in the previous year to 721. These included the blind and low vision learners, those with hearing impairment, dyslexics and those physically handicapped.
