The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) published results for the 2020 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) Friday but withheld results for 1,292 students as a result of malpractice.
The Minister for Education and Sports, Janet Kataha Museveni, who also doubles as Uganda’s First Lady, presided over the ceremony held at State House Nakasero.
UNEB Executive Secretary, Dan Odongo, explained that the results were withheld in “accordance with Section 5 (2) (b) of the UNEB Act No 1 of 2021.”
He said the students will be given a fair hearing with the hope that their results may later be released.
Examination malpractice seems to have dropped in Uganda. In 2019, UNEB withheld the results of 1,825 in 2019 compared to 1,292 in 2020.
“The measures put in resulted in a welcome reduction in the cases of malpractice. Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics have been most affected, with external assistance, collusion among candidates, and impersonation and script substitution as the common cases,” Odongo added.
According to UNEB, there were 333,396 candidates in 2020, down by 4,324 (-1.3%) from 337,720 in 2019. 44.4 percent of them (481,128) were USE beneficiaries. Male candidates registered were 166,744 (50.01%) a difference of 92 from females (166,652 49.99%).
In 2019, the number of females surpassed that of the males by 398.
Uganda Certificate of Education is presented to students after they complete the four-year lower secondary school. It is comparable to the GCE O-level in the UK. Ugandans also refer to UCE as O-Level.