The Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has stated that the number of students who have qualified to join universities has increased this year as compared to the previous ones.
The UNEB Executive Director, Dan Odongo, stated this during the release of the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) Exams 2023 today, March 7th, 2024, at State House Nakasero.
“University admissions to degree courses have, up to date, been considering two principal-level passes as the minimum requirement. If this consideration is maintained, 80,643 (73.7%) qualify to be admitted, compared to 67,815 (70.3%) in 2022. This is consistent with the fact that there was better overall performance and a significant increase in entries for the examination in 2023,” ED Odongo noted.
The UNEB ED added, “In cases where one principal and two subsidiary pass levels are considered for admission to other tertiary institutions, 90.7% of the candidates will qualify. This is better when compared to 2022 with 89.3%.”
UNEB has, however, reported that fewer females sat for the examinations compared to their male counterparts.
“Candidates who appeared for the examination were 109,488, compared to 96,557 in 2022, an increase of 12,931 candidates (13.4%). Of these, 46,860 (42.8%) were females and 62,628 (57.2%) were males. At this level, the number of female candidates has consistently been much lower than that of the males,” UNEB reports showed.
Professor Celestino Obua, the UNEB Chairperson, has also noted that entries for sciences have reduced while more students are enrolled in the humanities.
“The Board notes that entries for sciences at UACE continue to be lower than for humanities. It is gratifying, though, that the numbers are going up. Honourable Minister, the performance of the candidates has improved, especially at the upper level of candidates obtaining three principal passes,” Obua underscored.
Obua also indicated that fewer female students are offered science combinations and mathematics.
“We continue to see a low percentage of female candidates at this level offering mathematics and science combinations. The paradox, Honourable Minister, is that the girls who offer STEM subjects perform well, if not better than the boys. Why then do the girls shy away from these subjects?” she questioned.
According to UNEB, 110,553 candidates enrolled for the 2023 UACE examination from 2,102 centres, compared to 97,890 from 1,969 locations in 2022.
