For years, the release of Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) results has sparked a rush to tally distinctions, rank top performers, and celebrate high scores.
That era is now over. With the rollout of Uganda’s new competency-based curriculum, schools will no longer rank candidates by divisions or points.
Instead, the focus shifts to individual achievement levels, marking a significant shift in the country’s assessment approach.
The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has officially abandoned the traditional Division 1–4 grading system, replacing it with a competency-based assessment that evaluates students’ ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-life situations.
Releasing the first-ever UCE results under this format, UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo clarified that candidates will now be assessed using letter grades (A to E) rather than ranked by divisions.
“Under the competency-based assessment, there is no ranking of candidates into divisions. A candidate qualifies for a UCE certificate if they attain at least a Grade D in one subject,” Odongo explained.
The new system categorizes performance into five achievement levels. The highest, A (Exceptional), reflects advanced competency, where students apply knowledge innovatively.
B (Outstanding) indicates a high level of competency, with effective practical application of skills. C (Satisfactory) shows adequate knowledge and skill application in real-life situations, while D (Basic) represents a minimum competency level with limited practical application. E (Elementary) is the lowest, signaling difficulty in applying knowledge effectively.
Odongo emphasized that under this format, no student is considered to have failed, as every learner attains some level of competency.
The competency-based system integrates 20% school-based Continuous Assessment (CA) and 80% final examination performance, making it a more holistic evaluation method.
This year’s results show that 350,146 candidates (98.05%) qualified for the UCE certificate, earning Result 1 on their transcripts.
However, some students did not meet the minimum certification requirements. Candidates who missed compulsory subjects did not sit for at least eight subjects or lacked project work scores received Result 2, meaning they do not qualify for a UCE certificate.
Those who attained only achievement level E in all subjects received Result 3, also making them ineligible for certification.
Speaking at the release of the examinations, Education Minister Janet Museveni urged the country to embrace the new changes in student assessment, emphasizing that they are for the better.
She acknowledged that the long-standing practice of using aggregates and divisions to rank schools had fueled unethical competition among institutions.
“I call on the country to accept this change, which is for the better. I know that we have, for a long time, been used to aggregates and divisions leading to the ranking of schools.
This was always a source of very unethical practice by many schools to survive in the unhealthy competitions that had developed,” she stated.
She expressed satisfaction with the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) and UNEB for introducing a new approach that eliminates ranking candidates based on division attainment.
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