The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has confirmed that it will not
assign numerical values to the newly introduced competence-based assessment and
grading system for the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams. This
follows growing pressure from various sectors to apply numerical values to the
system.
Professor Celestino Obua, the Chairperson of UNEB, acknowledged the widespread
requests to introduce numerical values but stressed that the shift to a
competence-based system was deliberate and aimed at focusing more on the skills
and competencies students have acquired rather than simply quantifying their
performance.
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Following the release of the 2024 UCE results, confusion spread across
schools and among teachers as they attempted to interpret the new grading
framework. UNEB introduced an alphabetical grading system using the grades A,
B, C, D, E, O, and F, where A represents the highest achievement and F the
lowest. Candidates who missed the exams are marked with an "X."
Alongside this, UNEB will also report on students' competency proficiency
levels, indicating what learners with specific grades like A or B are expected
to have achieved in terms of knowledge and skills.
However, the transition from the old marks-based grading system to the new
competency-based framework has created confusion, leaving many parents and
teachers struggling to understand the new results. In response, several schools
took matters into their own hands by attempting to interpret the grading system
in ways that align with the older framework.
Some schools reintroduced divisions such as "Division One" and
"Division Two," even though UNEB had made it clear that these
divisions no longer exist in the new system. Others attempted to equate the new
grades with the traditional A, B, C, D, and E rankings, with some media outlets
following suit in explaining the new system.
Despite these attempts, UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo warned against
comparing the new system with the old one. He stressed that the
competency-based assessment framework is entirely different from the previous
grading system. "Given the complete departure from the old grading system,
no comparison can be made between the results of 2023 and 2024. Under the
competency-based assessment, there is no ranking of candidates into divisions
as was done under the previous curriculum," Odongo explained.
Professor Obua also pointed out that while universities and other
institutions may apply a point system using numerical values to interpret UCE
results for their admissions processes, these values (such as 6 for an A, 5 for
a B, etc.) were never part of the UNEB grading system. "It should be noted
that those values were never created by UNEB but were instead established by
post-secondary institutions for their own admission criteria," he added.
Education Minister Janet Museveni acknowledged that the new grading system
has caused confusion for many. She assured the public that UNEB plans to roll
out awareness programs to help increase understanding of how the grading system
works under the revised Lower Secondary Curriculum.
