The Parliamentary Committee on Education and Sports has hailed the management of the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB), for putting in place stringent measures that have helped to reduce the cases of examination malpractice and asked the Finance Ministry to fund the board’s underfunded priorities.
These remarks were made during the presentation of the budget framework paper for the FY 2024/25 – 2027/28, to the Committee at Parliament on Tuesday, January 10, 2024.
The Committee informed the UNEB team that they were pleased with the work of the Board, which they said has helped to uphold the standards of Education in the country.
“Other aspects that were specifically applauded by the committee are the policies on gender mainstreaming as well as prioritizing the assessment of Special Needs Education (SNE) candidates,” the committee stated.
The committee also commended the effective public awareness/ communication strategy of the Board noting that the awareness creation has contributed to the curbing of examination malpractice.
However, at the same sitting, the Committee asked the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to mobilize resources for UNEB’s underfunded priorities, to enable the Board to deliver on its mandate.
This came about after the UNEB ED Daniel Odongo informed the committee that the Board has several underfunded priorities.
Odongo informed the committee that UNEB’s examiners are the least paid in the region and because of the poor remuneration, there is a high turnover of good and experienced examiners. This, he said, makes it necessary for UNEB to constantly train new examiners which is also costly.
He also informed the Committee that while the Board’s policy of equitable assessment is commendable, it comes at a high cost.
He specifically informed the committee that while the sensitization about SNE candidates is a positive thing, it has resulted into an increase in the SNE candidature, which requires the use of a large number of support personnel, who have to be facilitated.
Additionally, he thanked the chairperson and the entire committee for their commitment and guidance in ensuring that the Board obtains funding for its activities.
He noted that this year, the Board is transitioning from rote assessment to competency-based assessment in line with the Board’s goal of contributing to increased quality and relevancy of assessment and certification for national transformation.
