By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
The Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) on Wednesday 6th September, 2023 released Timetables for the 2023 PLE, UCE and UACE national exams.
According to the board, this year’s national examinations will commence on Friday October 13, with the briefing of UCE candidates and the candidates will sit for their first paper that is Geography on October 16.
“The second series of the examinations is the PLE which will be conducted from November 7 to 9th, 2023, starting with the briefing of candidates,” UNEB said.
UACE examinations, the third and final series of the 2023 national exams will according to the released timetable commence on November 10 and end on December 1.
Speaking at the release of the timetables, Dan Odongo, the board Executive Director warned heads of schools, parents and learners against engaging in both internal and external examination malpractice stating that may lead lead to disqualification, cancellation of results or arrest of a candidate.
“The candidates must note that involvement in malpractice in one paper shall lead to cancellation of entire results of the examination.,” Odongo cautioned.
He advised to heads of centres to ensure that every candidate receives a copy of the timetable that will be provided to schools both in hard copies and uploaded on schools’ portals in soft copies as well as displaying registers to candidates for checking and verification of their credentials.
First forward, the Board ED further appealed to Head teachers to ensure briefing of all candidates to avoid inconveniences during the examination period.
According to Odongo, majority of the results that have been withheld by UNEB are due to lack of adequate briefing of candidates
A total of 1,224,371 candidates from 20,921 examination centres have registered to sit for this year’s national examinations at PLE, UCE and UACE levels. These include 51 percent females and 49 percent males.
UNEB has recorded a percentage increase in the number of candidates sitting for UACE 12,690 (13.5%) that is a total of 110,579 candidates this year compared to 97,889 last year.
“At the UCE level, there is a percentage increase of 14,988 (4.3%) in candidature, from 349,433 to 364,421 this year,” shows official records at UNEB
The board however, registered a drop of 83,438 (10%) in the candidature at PLE level from 832,809 last year to 749,371 this year. Odongo attributed a drop of candidates at PLE to the effects of COVID-19 which have left many pupils drop out of school.
A total of 3,698 registered candidates are Special Needs Education (SNE) learners. They include 2,436 at PLE, 721 at UCE and 242 at UACE. These have increased by 298 candidates as compared to last year’s 3400 candidates.
In terms of funding, 645,191 (53%) of the total candidature are funded by the government (UPULETS) , while 579,180 (47%) are privately sponsored candidates (Non UPULETS)
