The education sector seems to be on the brink of a crisis as thousands of Senior Four candidates could be left without grades in this year’s final exams.
With just two weeks to go until the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations begin, over 2,096 examination centers have yet to submit their continuous assessment and project scores to the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), leaving many students at risk of being ungraded.
This looming disaster stems from schools’ failure to comply with the requirements of the new lower secondary curriculum, which emphasises ongoing assessments alongside traditional exams.
As a result, even if these students sit for their exams, their final grades could be incomplete or invalid, jeopardizing their academic futures.
Under the new lower secondary curriculum, 80% of a student’s final grade comes from UNEB’s End of Cycle exams, while the remaining 20% is based on continuous assessments and project work done at school.
UNEB’s Executive Director, Dan Odongo, emphasized that students cannot be graded or receive certificates without these continuous assessment scores being submitted.
He urged parents and students to check with their schools to ensure that the scores have been sent to UNEB in time to avoid any issues.
While UNEB is pushing schools to submit the required scores, they have not disclosed exactly how many candidates are affected.
An officer from UNEB mentioned that only 56 centers have submitted their scores so far, out of a total of 4,752.
This means that around 2,096 centers have not yet sent in their students’ scores, potentially leaving over half of the candidates ungraded.
The deadline for submitting Continuous Assessment scores was originally set for September 30, but UNEB has extended it by a month to October 30.
Dan Odongo, UNEB’s Executive Director, urged all heads of examination centers to ensure that the scores are submitted by this new deadline to avoid complications.
“Heads of UCE centers must submit the project achievement and Continuous Assessment (CA) scores for UCE candidates before the new October 30th, 2024 deadline,” said Odongo, adding that the candidates without these scores will not be graded in any of the subjects they offer.
The delays in submitting these scores are largely due to UNEB’s slow rollout of the system for managing the process.
For instance, some schools in Central Uganda have yet to receive the necessary training to capture and submit the required data properly.
Odongo added that UNEB is working to finalize training in the affected areas.
To help schools, UNEB has also provided offline software that allows schools to capture the scores and submit them online later.
The executive director added that schools must not deliver coursework assessment marks physically, by post, or by courier, as these will not be accepted.
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