By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
A slight higher number of 2023 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) have qualified to join university compared to the previous year, according to the results released by UNEB.
“At the minimum of two principal passes level required for university admissions,80,643(73.7%) qualify compared to 67,815 (70.3%) in 2022,” UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo said.
In terms of numbers, this is slightly higher than that of 2022 which was 67,815 (70.3%).
UNEB attributed this to an increase in entries for examinations in 2023.
According to UNEB,109,488 candidates sat for 2023 UACE exams from 2,103 centres across the country compared to 97,890 from 1,969 centres in 2022. They include 46,860 (42.8%) female and 62,628 (57.2%) male candidates.
“There was better performance and significant increase in entries for the examination in 2023. In cases where one principal and two subsidiaries are considered for admission to other tertiary institutions, 90.7% of candidates will qualify compared to 2022 with 89.3%,” Odongo said.
According to UNEB, female candidates performed better, proportionally than their male counterparts at the principal level passes (A-E) in all subjects except in Agriculture, chemistry and Biology. They also performed better in subsidiary mathematics. The board noted that there is still lower numbers of female students offering science subjects than male students at Advanced level.