Last year’s Uganda Certificate of Education examination results released last Friday indicated an overall decline in general performance. Beyond the general drop, the poor performance in science subjects, while not surprising, should concern us, more so because it greatly contributed to the general slump in overall performance.
Statistics from Uneb show that 60 per cent of the 306,507 candidates who sat the 2015 exams failed to obtain at least Pass 8 to qualify for a grade. Notwithstanding improvement in Physics and Chemistry, the percentage pass levels remain low with almost 60 per cent of the candidates unable to demonstrate the minimum competency required to be graded, according to Uneb’s executive secretary Mathew Bukenya.
The poor performance in science subjects has always been blamed on shortage of competent science teachers. Lack of science teachers and science labs affect the administration of practical exams and consequently students’ performance. According to Bukenya, many teachers move to more than two centre numbers to help prepare for the practical papers on the same day.
Uneb officials have also pointed out that in last year’s exams, there was evidence that candidates received assistance mainly in science practical papers, theory and mathematics, which they blamed on poor teaching of the subjects and lack of enough teachers. It is, therefore, not surprising that 90 per cent of the results confiscated on suspicion of examination malpractice were in sciences.
While Uneb board chairperson Prof Mary Okwakol has rightly asked the Education ministry to find out why performance in sciences remains poor, we should note that this is not a new trend, and the contributing factors have been extensively discussed in the past.
In 2013, for instance, Education minister Jessica Alupo revealed that some schools performed poorly in sciences because they are not using laboratory equipment provided for teaching sciences. In 2012, it was reported that the country was short of 6,500 science teachers and some are ill-trained, which explains the poor performance in sciences.
While the Ministry of Education on Friday admitted that they need to recruit 4,000 more science teachers, minister Alupo said there is no wage bill to cater for them. This takes the country back to the vicious circle of lamenting about poor performance in science subjects without practical measures to reverse the trend.
Government efforts to promote sciences cannot be successfully implemented unless students are given a proper foundation. This will only work if government invests in equipping schools with science labs and hiring competent teachers. We cannot promote science subjects while ignoring the important aspect of continuous practical exposure.
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