PLE CANDIDATES’ NUMBERS REGISTERED DROP BY 10% UNEB REVEALED

UNEB Executive Director left and the body’s Rose Mukasa Nabukenya the Director in-charge of PLE displaying the timetable

The number of pupils who registered to seat for the 2023 PLE exams has declined by 10% from 832,809 registered in 2022 to 749,371. While for both UCE and UACE increased by 14,988 (4.3%) and 12,690 (13.5%) respectively.

This was revealed to the reporters by UNEB’S Executive Director Dan N. Odongo in a press conference held at Uganda Media Centre on September 6, 2023 while releasing the timetable. He said that this year’s final exams for UCE will commence on Friday October 13th and end on December 1.

The Executive Director attributed the decline in numbers of pupils registered for PLE to the end of Covid-19 Pandemic era. He said that in 2022 many parents opt to register their children who were in P6 because they thought that they had grown in terms of age because of the time they lost during the Pandemic period and they wanted them to join secondary education the next year.

“ We now registered the normal numbers. Parents have no panic like it was the case when we had just resumed the academic activities.’’ Said Mr. Odongo

Mr. Odongo said that on this day the Head Teachers with the help of other teachers in the respective schools must brief the learners giving the candidates Directions and Cautions especially against Malpractice in or around the Examination Room.

The UCE candidates will start with the Geography papers on October 16, 2023 and the exams will run until November 17, 2023 while that of UACE will run from November 10- December 1, 2023 and PLE will be conducted from November 7-9, 2023.

Pupils of a certain school writing exams last year.

The Director also warned candidates to desist temptations of getting involved in malpractice because this will lead to disqualification and cancellation of results even if it’s in only one paper, something that may jeopardize their future.

“Candidates and all those concerned including Parents must take special note of the sections on Directions to candidates, and Cautions against Malpractice in or around Examination Room.’’ Mr. Odongo cautioned.

He urged the Heads of Centers to display the candidates’ registers in the open places like at the school notice boards such that candidates can be able to confirm their registration status as well as the correctness of their bio-data because this is in line with UNEB Act 2021, Article 4, sub-section II.

A total of one million, two hundred twenty-four thousands and three hundred seventy-one (1,224,371) candidates were registered for all the three levels combined from 20,921 centers. Of the total candidates, 51% are female and 49 are males. While of the entire candidature,3,698 are Special Needs Education (SNE) learners.

Meanwhile the new Lower Secondary School Curriculum examinations system will commence next year and according to the Examinations Board Director, preparations are ongoing.

“ We have just completed a countrywide pre-test of the items, and are currently being analyzed to ascertain the outcome. The pre-test exercise was conducted in 220 schools and 6,000 students were involved.’’ He said.

He further said that during this exercise, the Board interacted with the learners of Senior Three ( the class that did the pre-test) as well as teachers and collected valuable information from them that will be used to take informed decisions.

By George Bukenya

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