UNEB commences undertaking trials for new secondary curriculum examinations

By Charles Katabalwa

16^th Aug 2023

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has begun testing sample questions for the assessment under the recently revised lower secondary curriculum.

In 2020, the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) undertook a comprehensive revision of the lower secondary curriculum, emphasizing a shift towards competency-based and learner-centred education. Central to this development was the changes in assessment that had to be done by UNEB.

UNEB spokesperson Jennifer Kalule Musamba has confirmed that the board is undertaking a trial for the examinations.

Musamba added that since the curriculum’s implementation, the board has been diligently collaborating with a panel of both internal and external examination experts, whose collective efforts have been directed towards formulating an assessment framework that resonates with the revised curriculum.

Musamba adds that subject experts are actively engaged in scrutinizing the temporal requirements for the assessment process.

This encompasses an array of considerations, including the duration needed for the completion of a single examination.

According to the plan, once UNEB finalizes the envisioned structure of the new exams, sample materials will be dispersed to schools nationwide to serve as tools for teachers to prepare their students, who will be pioneer candidates in senior by that point.

Now, the final scores will be 80 per cent from the final examinations and the remaining 20 per cent will be derived from continuous assessments administered to students at the conclusion of each topic within a particular subject.