A change in the grading system has eroded candidates’ scores, results of last year’s Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations released yesterday show.
Gone are the days when many candidates in elite schools posted triple As. According to the 2016 A-level results released yesterday, no school registered more than five students with maximum points, thanks to the recently-introduced grading system. In fact, only 51 of the 102, 858 students that wrote S6 examinations last year managed to score maximum points.
For instance, while St Mary’s Kitende had 110 candidates scoring maximum points based on the old grading system in 2014, the school managed only eight candidates with triple A in 2015, and only two in 2016.
Bweranyangi Girls in Bushenyi had three students scoring maximum points this year, becoming the top school in the country in that fold. Uganda Martyrs SS Namugongo, Nabisunsa Girls, Seeta HS, St Mary’s College Kisubi, Mengo SS, and Madhina Islamic got two students a piece scoring triple A.
Ntare School, King’s College Budo, and St Mary’s Lugazi could only manage one student with triple A. With effect from 2015, Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) started basing its grading on what it described as “criterion referencing.”
This meant that grades were based on predetermined scores. For instance, before the marking starts, Uneb can say that for subject X, only students with 75 per cent and above can get distinction one. If no one attains that mark, no one gets a D1.
Previously, examiners would first mark and depending on the students’ performance, they would set the grade. If overall students performed poorly, the D1 threshold could be lowered to 60 per cent. The impact is easy to see: very few students are scoring the maximum points in the new system compared to the past.
DWINDLING NUMBERS
It was noted that the number of students proceeding to A-level is low, a development Janet Museveni, the minister of education, described as “unacceptable.”
Look, even after government extended its free education programme to cover students in A-level, the numbers have remained disappointingly low, eliciting questions as to what could be happening to these students.
Only 104,243 registered for UACE last year and only 102,858 turned up to sit for their papers. The number has hovered around 100,000 students for the last six years.
The number of students that complete UCE or O-level annually is approximately 350,000 students. That means more than 70 per cent drop out before A-level. Ms Museveni expressed concern.
“I note with concern that the transition rate from UCE to UACE is unacceptably low,” she said.
“The ministry will find out exactly whether entry into these other options catered for the more than 250,000 students who did not continue beyond Senior 4,” she added.
The situation is worse for the females, with fewer girls reaching this level. This means a dismal number of students is benefiting from the government’s affirmative action of 1.5 points added to each girl who applies for any course in public universities.
The ratio of girls to boys reaching A-level is currently 40.3 to 59.7 per cent. This pales in comparison with the near parity ratio seen at UCE. Reacting to this, Dan Odongo, the Uneb executive secretary, said: “Whereas it is possible that many female candidates may have chosen other available post-UCE level training programmes such as nursing, teaching, and other vocational courses, others may have dropped out due to gender-related factors.”
There is fear that many girls are branching out of the education system at this stage to get married after their S4. Ms Museveni said the ministry of education could also look into the issue of constant hikes in school fees to establish whether that is also responsible for the dropouts.
Alluding to the recent public outcry about the school fees structures of some schools, the minister said government would be hard on schools that increase tuition every term. She said she had instructed the permanent secretary to re-issue guidelines schools must follow to increase dues.
POOR SCIENCES
Like at S4, sciences were the poorly done in the 2016 UACE examinations. Biology was the worst done, said Odongo, echoing exactly what Uneb reported last year while releasing the 2015 UACE examinations. Only 40.8 per cent of students obtained at least an E in the subject.
Mathematics and Maths (sub) were poorly done too, with at least 800 students scoring a zero in the latter.
“Even at this level where candidates opt for subjects of their choice, quite a number of zero scores were recorded in almost all subjects,” Uneb’s Odongo lamented.
Poor performance in sciences is an indictment on the government which has been pushing for science teaching as an engine for economic growth and development.
President Museveni has used every opportunity to tout sciences and often publicly described some arts subjects as “useless.”
Indeed, Vision 2040, which is supposed to anchor the country’s growth in the next three decades, identifies science subjects as the main focus of growth. In general performance, girls beat boys although more males registered and did well in science subjects.
QUALITY OF STUDENTS
The issue of the general quality of candidates came up again, just as it several times in the past. Odongo said that while a couple of students exhibited good quality work, “many others were evidently poorly prepared.”
In humanities, he explained, “poor communication skills affected the candidates’ ability to express themselves.” Odongo added that “a lot of students found problems with questions testing higher order competence.”
Of particular concern was another old problem – poor mastery of the English language, which negatively affected the performance of many candidates.
editor@observer.ug
