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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board -UBTEB has released a roadmap that will be followed to conduct the 2020 examinations that had been deferred due to Covid-19 induced lockdown.
Onesmus Oyesigye, the Executive Secretary of UBTEB released the said roadmap on Saturday afternoon during a press conference held at the board office in Ntinda.
Oyesgiye notes that when educational institutions were reopened in October, the board organized examinations for the May/June finalists only. He however adds that other learners needed to make up for the time lost before they could be assessed.
“Examinations for selected programmes which were not conducted in addition to the deferred November/December series will be conducted between March and July before the new academic year begins,” said Oyesigye.
According to the time roadmap issued, Year Two National Certificate students of the deferred November/December 2020 examinations are expected to start their examinations on March 15. Oyesigye says the board has finished the registration of candidates in this group.
The said examination will be done by students pursuing Uganda Community Polytechnic Certificate, National Certificate-Technical, Advanced Craft Programmes, and Business and Humanities for March intake cohorts.
A total of 30,069 candidates are expected to sit for the examination from 460 examination centres. The board says it will deploy 443 reconnoiters, 2,000 supervisors, and 1,500 practical examiners for these examinations.
Meanwhile, the released roadmap also indicates that examinations for students in Year Two 2020 Semester Two-March intake (business and agriculture for selected institutions) will begin with briefing on March 19, with the other written and practical examination commencing on March 22.
Students in Year One 2020 National Technical and Uganda Community Polytechnic Certificate-agriculture, Year One National Certificate-Technical, Year One Semester One Technical/Vocation Diploma 2020/21, will all sit their examinations beginning on July 19.
In the same development, deferred May/June 2020 exams for students in year one semester two 2019/2020 (Technical/Vocation Diploma) will also commence on April 8 while students in year one semester one 2020/21 pursuing Physical and Biological sciences will start their examination on July 26.
Dr Wilfred Nahamya Karukuza, Deputy Executive Secretary-Examination Management says that all the examinations have been scheduled considering the content of each programme to ensure that students are given enough time to prepare and achieve all the required competence.
Karukuza adds that they have also advised teachers to adjust their methods of teaching to employ learner centre approaches to accelerate syllabus coverage.
Conversely, Oyesigye notes that due to the circumstances under which the examinations are going to be conducted, the board expects that the administration and other related costs might rise. He however didn’t disclose the figure noting that they are still discussing the required budget and soon they will present it to the ministry of education and sports.
The board is allocated 13 billion shillings every financial year for examinations. Out of the said funding, 4 billion shillings is used to prepare, supervise and mark the May/June examination series and 9 billion shillings for the November/December series. But it should be noted that the board also receives examination registration fees from the private students.
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