Following the continued poor performance in the science subjects even in the recently released UCE 2013 results, government of Uganda is in plans to recruit 360 secondary school science teachers in financial year 2014/15 to address the issue.
The recently released Uganda Certificate of Education (UNEB) results indicate that science subjects continue to be poorly performed despite government efforts to equip schools with the necessary equipment.
Briefing the media during the release of the 2013 UCE results at Statistics house in Kampala, Mathew Bukenya the Executive Secretary of Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) said that the performance in the core science subjects still remains poor with over 50% of the candidates not able to demonstrate basic competencies.
According to the 2013 UCE performance there is a noticeable drop in performance in the science subjects with only 0.9% of the candidates attaining first grades in Chemistry, 1.5% in Physics and 1.2% of the candidates scoring first grade in Biology.
UNEB Chairperson Fagil Monday attributed the failure in these subjects to the increased rate of cram work among the students which has resulted into examination malpractices where students reproduce the same content in the final examinations.
Letters to My Younger Self: What Uganda’s CEOs and Professionals Wish They Knew at the StartThe failure in performance was partly attributed to the limited science teachers in the country as the few who are available teach in more than one school. Minister for Education and sports, Jesicca Alupo said her ministry was working out measures to increase on the number of science teachers in the country revealing that over 360 science teachers are expected to be recruited in the next financial year.
According to the results, up to 90% of the examination malpractice cases registered during the 2013 UCE exams were in the area of science where candidates received assistance in the practical papers. It is alleged that teachers carried out experiments and supplied answers to students which they later reproduced in the final examination.
It should be noted that there is a drop in the general performance by candidates in the 2013 UCE examinations as compared to that of 2012. 2013 registered an increment in the number of candidates sitting for the examinations with 289,012 compared to 262,987 who sat in 2012. Out of the candidates who sat for the examinations in 2013 , 261438 candidates passed while 25,667 failed.
