The development comes at a time when the mass registration of learners, including those undertaking the new curriculum, on the Education Management Information System-EMIS, which was rolled out by the ministry of education, has failed to start.
The Uganda
National Examinations Board-UNEB will embark on collecting data and registering learners
in lower secondary for the purposes of receiving continuous assessment scores.
The development comes at a time when the mass registration of learners,
including those undertaking the new curriculum, on the Education Management
Information System-EMIS, which was rolled out by the ministry of education, has
failed to be finalized.
Dr. Peter Waiswa Wakabi, the Director of Technology and Reprographics at UNEB, says
they have learned that EMIS doesn’t have complete data on targeted learners yet
the board is expected to start receiving learners’ scores effective next term,
which is opening in a fortnight. //Cue in; “And even those…
Cue out…every single learner.”//
Dr. Wakabi says that in addition to the fact that many schools have failed to
register their students on the EMIS, they also have discovered that there are
specific data that is crucial but not collected by the system, such as the
subjects that learners are pursuing. //Cue in; “But there are…
Cue out…for what subject.”//
The revised lower
secondary curriculum, among other things, introduced formative assessment which
contributes 20 percent to the learner’s final results at the end of the
learning cycle in Senior Four. According to the guidelines, scores obtained
from the said assessment must be submitted regularly to the examination body.
Although there have been delays in implementing curriculum requirements on
continuous assessment, the examinations board is expected to start receiving
these classroom-based scores for each subject done by learners in S.1, S.2, and
S.3. For those in S.3, the scores are critical as the board cannot grade
them in national examination next year if they lack these scores.
The Ministry
of Education and Sports had proposed that learners’ assessments be compiled
with the help of the Education Information Management System-EMIS. Under this
system, a learner was to be given an identification number that could be used
to track their performance even when they changed schools before
completion of the level of education.
The ministry
has over time been compelled to prolong the deadlines for registering students
on EMIS as schools complained that they were hampered by a number of issues,
including lack of equipment, limited access to the internet, and the fact that
the EMIS itself is on and off.
However, it
should be highlighted that even without EMIS’ challenges, UNEB immediately
showed signs of not being at ease sharing data utilized by another organization.
Dan Odongo,
the UNEB Executive Director, mentioned in one of the interviews with URN that
the examination body preferred using an internal site to manage students'
continuous assessment results due to data integrity concerns.
But, Dr. Wakabi says that UNEB might triangulate the collected data from EMIS
and National Identification and Registration Authority-NIRA as they develop
their system.
//Cue in; “EMIS is a…
Cue out…ministry of education.”//
Rose Nabukenya Mukasa, the acting Manager- Examination Management at
UNEB, says all schools which legally register; regardless of whether they have
a UNEB examination centre or not, will be part of the continuous access
registration process.
“Ever
secondary school will be reached. every learner will be registered but for the
school to be registered it should be operating legally,” says Nabukenya.
This is also
a new change given the fact that previously UNEB had noted secondary schools
which are not recognized as examination centers were to be allowed to submit
learners’ continuous assessment results.
Nabukenya
further adds that schools without UNEB centres must apply online for a unique
number that will allow them to transmit learners' continuous assessment scores
to the board.
"We
anticipate that every secondary school will register, after which we will give
each student at that school a special number; this is not to be confused with
index numbers,” the acting examinations manager says, adding that this
registration will be free for both the schools and the students.
"The
learner's unique number would assist us to register his details, including the
subject one is pursuing, and recording his score in our database. but a school
which will not have registered for continuous assessment will not be allowed by
the board to register their learners at the end of the cycle, "she adds.
Asked whether they will not be disturbed by challenges that have so far failed
the EMIS system, Dr. Wakabi says considering their prior expertise gathered from
managing national examination registration, they are confident they will be able
to handle it with ease.
“For years
now, we have conducted student registration using an online portal. We get all
of this information from schools across the nation. We are aware of the
procedure, therefore be rest assured that no school will be missed,” says
Wakabi.
He, however,
asserts that the board would provide schools with training to help them acquire
or grasp a number of fundamentals, such as how assessments will be conducted
and how data will be transmitted using the UNEB portal.
//Cue in; “Even the ones…
Cue out…all of that.”//
As UNEB starts registration of learners from S.1 to S.3, NIRA has a target
along with a hope of issuing National Identification Numbers-NINs to learners
who don’t have them yet. However, UNEB officials say that a NIN is not one of
the requirements for learners to be registered for both continuous assessment
and national examinations.
