There has been a decline in students’ performance in the 2020 technical and business exams, the Uganda Business and Technical examination Board (UBTEB) has said.
UBTEB executive director Onesmus Oyesige said there was a 3% decline in pass rate, with only 75% of students passing the 2020 exams as compared to 78% in 2019.
“We are investigating the matter to find out why,” he said on Friday, 3 September, adding that many students had failed to get placement to undergo the mandatory industrial training due to lockdown, which might have affected their final grades.
Oyesige, however, said overall, male students had performed better, with a 76% pass rate compared to 73% of girls.
And female students, on the other hand, performed better in the Uganda Community Polytechnic Certificate category, obtaining a 93% pass rate as opposed to 83% of the male students.
He was speaking during the release of the UBTEB exams at a ceremony held in Kampala on Friday.
Some of the courses, whose results were released included business diploma, business certificate programme, technical advanced craft, technical national certificate and the technical community polytechnic certificate.
Oyesige said the results released were of students who sat in March this year.
In total, 16,144 students sat the exams of which 4,732 were female.
He revealed that results of 19 students had been cancelled, while those of 17 others were withheld over engaging in examination malpractices.
He also revealed that a total of 1,125 students (about 7%) who registered for the exams had failed to turn up for the exams.
“There are various reasons for this absenteeism, but the most probable are the COVID-19 pandemic and the failure to pay the tuition fees,” he said.
Reopening of schools
The state minister of higher education, Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, who represented the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, used the event to clarify about the reopening of schools.
He explained that the ministry was still in consultation and that “at an appropriate time the Cabinet will make a decision”.
Muyingo said delays in reopening schools are in the bid to protect and prevent a repeat of the surge in infection that resulted in a high number of deaths this year.
Dr. Eng. Silver Mugisha, who is the UBTEB board chairperson, said the examinations were conducted with strict observance of standard operating procedures for the prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had turned out to be costly to the board.
He also said the board entered into a memorandum of understanding with ‘strategic local partners, including National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Uganda Industrial Research Institute, Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“With these collaborative arrangements, the quality and competences of Technical Vocational Education and Training graduates will be enhanced. Linking assessment to the industry will speed the process of skilling and innovation uptake,” he noted.
Mugisha revealed that UBTEB has secured a one-acre piece of land at Kyambogo Hill from Uganda Investment Authority and that the procurement process for construction of the assessment centre was underway.
