KAMPALA — Male candidates have significantly performed better than their female counterparts in the just-released 2020 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examination results.
Speaking at the release of the results on Friday at State House in Nakasero, Uneb executive secretary Dan N. Odongo said males outshone at all levels despite registering fewer candidates.
“Overall, male candidates performed better than females at all the higher grades. In all the large entry subjects, males still showed better performance, with differences more marked in Mathematics and Sciences,” Odongo said noting that this trend in disparity has been observed over the years.
Uneb results show that females only performed better than males in the English Language. At percentage divisional passes, females continued to trail. At least 14.3 males passed in division one compared to 9.9 per cent of females in the same grade.
At division two, more males excelled with 22.9 per cent leaving females at 19.4 per cent. It’s only at division three where both genders passed at 24.7 per cent. More females settled for division four at 39.7 per cent as males posted 33.2 per cent. Some 6.3 per cent of females were ungraded compared to 4.9 per cent of males.
In 2020, at least 330,592 candidates turned up for the UCE examination compared to 333,060 candidates in 2019. This represents a decrease of 2,460 candidates. Of the total candidature, 165,251 were males and 165,341 were females.
In a speech read on behalf of the Uneb chairperson, Prof Mary Okwakol, by the director of education standards, Dr Kedrace Turyagyenda, candidature in previous examinations had been increasing between two to three per cent annually. Okwakol, however, said in this examination, candidature dropped by 1.3 per cent which is more than 4,000 candidates.
She attributed the reduction to the failure of some private schools to reopen in October 2020 making some learners unable to register for the exams. Some students did not also report back to school because they had taken on menial jobs while teachers in private schools also abandoned teaching for other income-generating activities.
“In some private schools, parents failed to get money for registration fees and other school charges; a few head teachers cases of girls being married off as some parents reportedly did not bring back their children due to fear of the COVID-19 infection in schools,” Okwakol was quoted as saying.
GENERAL PERFORMANCE
While releasing the statement of results, Odongo said that there was better performance overall, compared to 2019, with 311,233 (4,309 more) candidates passing compared to 306,924 who passed the examination in 2019.
The percentage of candidates who passed across all divisions one, two, three and four increased tremendously. Some 39,968 candidates passed in Division One, 109,750 in Division Two, 191,178 in Division Three and 311,233 in Division Four. Uneb results show that 329,648 candidates were ungraded and thus, cannot advance to A-level education. These candidates can either repeat S4 or join technical & vocational training institutions for skill-based opportunities.
According to the board, there was an overall improvement in performance in the large entry subjects like English, CRE, IRE, and History save for Geography, Chemistry and Biology.
Although Biology showed a slight improvement at the distinction two levels, the overall pass levels for Science subjects remained low where nearly half of the candidates have not achieved the minimum Pass eight levels with Chemistry still being the worst done subject.
Click here to download the UCE results pdf