Ninety eight thousand three hundred ninety two (98,392) candidates registered
for the 2020 UACE examination from 1,952 centres compared to 104,476
candidates from 2,094 centres in 2019. This is a decrease of 6,084 candidates
(-5.8%). Candidates who appeared for the examination were 97,490, compared to
103,429 in 2019, a decrease of 5,989 candidates (-5.8%). The number of
candidates registered under the UPOLET programme was 17,647 (17.9%) of total
candidature compared to 19,361 in 2019 (18.5% of total candidature).
The decrease of candidature at this level has been much more than at UCE. This was said by Dan Odongo, the Executive Director Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) while delivering the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) results at state house Entebbe on Friday.
The figures show that apart from 2018, this has been the year with the least number of candidates sitting for thier final exams.
According to Odongo, in 2016, a total of 102,858 candidates sat for the exam, in 2017 the number going down to 100,066 candidates in total and in 2018 the number reducing to 98,524 candidates sitting for the final exam and then increasing in 2019 to 103,429 and then drastically reducing to 97,440 candidates in 2020 making a difference of 1084 candidates compared to 2018 which was the year with the lowest candidature sitting with students under a hundred thousand sitting as it is with 2020.
This makes the two years, 2018 and 2020 the only years in the last 5 years to have a sitting of students below 100,000 having had 98,524 students in 2018 and 97,440 in 2020.
However, Professor Mary Okwakol, the chairperson UNEB noted the low candidate turn up.
“The number of candidates registered for the UACE Examinations also dropped as was seen in UCE”. She admitted.
The professor attributed the low turn up to many factors which include private schools that did not reopen due to not meeting SOPs to follow making students fail to find alternative UACE centres, students not returning to school since they got paying work in the period the schools closed, parents not being able to take back thier children to school due to the pandemic that affected thier income hence not being able to pay fees for the children and for the girls, having early marriages and pregnancies during the lockdown making it impossible to resume school.
