Africa-Press – Uganda. Yesterday, the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) released the 2022 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) results. Yesterday’s results are the last set of final exams under Uneb’s mandate to be released for a total of more than 1.2 million PLE, UCE and UACE candidates of the 2022 academic year.
According to the Uneb executive director, Mr Daniel Odongo, out of the 96,557 candidates who sat for the UACE exams, 40,219 were female and 56,023 were male. A total of 67,815 (70.3 percent) candidates obtained the minimum two principal passes required for university admission amid zeros scored in many papers.
State minister for Higher Education, Mr John Muyingo, said there was need for concern after a student who scored zero in a 2022 UACE exam asked the examinations body not to waste its time.
In a short poem, the student wrote: “Dear Mr Examiner, you are still wasting time on me when there are more serious candidates? I am the stone the builder refused,” before listing some famous musicians and their songs.
In responding to the zeros scored in many papers, Mr Odongo wondered if there was an underlying problem, while Mr Muyingo wondering if it was teachers failing the students.
“The results could have been much better if all our teachers were rendering services expected of them. It is time for us to crack down on this habit [absenteeism],” Mr Muyingo said.
And in making those remarks, the minister reopened an old wound that always hurt the teachers. The demand for better pay, working and living conditions has always been at the heart of teachers’ quarrel with government.
Mid last year, learners from both primary and secondary schools were left stranded as arts teachers across the country went on strike. Teachers under their umbrella body, the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu), had earlier warned of the industrial action, demanding for uniform salary increment, and not just for science teachers.
If what the minister is saying is anything to go by, its high time government realises that they can force teachers to go back to class whenever they lay down their tools, but they cannot force them to teach learners.
Government needs a well-motivated teaching workforce if we are to give quality education to Uganda’s children. Rather than blame teachers for the poor performance, government needs to listen to the teachers’ grievances so that they go back to class and teach.
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