In two months' time, Daniel Nokrach Odongo will preside over end-of-year exams as the executive secretary of the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb). As MOSES TALEMWA has found, the national examiner will have over one million candidates, for the first time.
The Uneb is in its final preparations to conduct national examinations by the end of the year. Starting at the end of the month, district officials will meet the Uneb over examinations preparations. Security officials are also meeting over invigilation preparations.
According to the Uneb IT manager, Dr Peter Wakabi, the examiner is making last preparations to conduct the finals. Dr Wakabi told us that 1,068,205 candidates had registered for the exams, to be conducted at P7, S4 and S6 levels. It will be the first time that the examiner handles one million candidates in a year.
“The number represents a continuing trend where the Uneb has registered more candidates for the exams than the year before,” Wakabi said.
For instance, at PLE, 640,689 candidates have registered for the November exams, compared to 604,971 in 2014 and 582,085 in 2013. The bulk of the candidates (488,222) are drawn from government schools running the Universal Primary Education programme.
At O-level, 323,204 have registered for this year’s exams compared to 313,171 in 2015 and 310,414 in 2014. However, here government schools (157,507) will play second fiddle to their private counterparts (165,697).
At A-level, some 104,312 candidates will be readied for the exams, whose date should be announced in a month’s time. This compares with 101,268 in 2015 and 108,419 in 2014. Here, government schools are in the minority, accounting for 23,918, compared to 80,394 candidates in the private schools.
E-REGISTRATION
This is the second time that the Uneb is holding e-registration for candidates among schools. According to Dr Wakabi, it is now the standard.
“There will be no returning to manual systems, since this is more convenient … some head teachers have come here to thank us for going towards e-registration since it is easier,” Wakabi said.
Soon after he took office, Odongo also said he would emphasize electronic operations as a way of easing work.
“This is the way we have been heading … I expect to see more of our operations taking advantage of efficiencies created,” he said early this year.
According to Wakabi, most schools had submitted their details on time, expect for a few, which have elected not to have candidates registered there.
“Most head teachers met our deadlines; they are ready for the exams, except a few who are yet to complete payment of examination fees … but we think all will be fine by the time we get to exam time,” Wakabi said.
Wakabi admitted that some head teachers had challenges filling out the e-forms and posting them on the Uneb portal, last year, but those issues had been addressed.
“There were no issues raised this time, most head teachers are getting more comfortable with the system,” he added.
EARLY EXAM RELEASE
The adoption of IT in the Uneb operations has thrown in a new clincher. The Uneb is yet to determine the actual dates on which exams will be conducted and then marked, but officials in Uneb, who declined to be named, expect that if all goes as planned, there could be an early release of exams.
“We think we can afford to release results by Christmas time, if given authority to do so,” an official at Uneb said. “These days the marking process is so much more efficient and fast.”
It will be interesting to see if the education ministry officials allow Uneb to take full advantage of the efficiencies created and release results before the end of the year, to allow parents and students plan early for the first term.
mtalemwa@observer.ug