CBC Pioneers Sit for A Level Exams

 

The candidates are the first cohort to have completed lower secondary education under the Competency-Based Curriculum. They joined Senior One in 2020, just as the new curriculum was being introduced, and sat their Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations in 2024 under the competency-based assessment model.

Although the full A-Level curriculum overhaul is still pending, UNEB has aligned this year’s examinations with the competency-based approach, following guidance from the National Curriculum Development Centre. The journey of this cohort has been marked by significant challenges. 

 

Shortly after joining secondary school, the learners experienced prolonged school closures triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. They later had to navigate the transition to the new lower secondary curriculum and its early implementation challenges, while studying under an abridged A-Level curriculum as they awaited a fully revised syllabus.

Isaac Mutyaba, a secondary school teacher who has taught members of this cohort since their early secondary years, said the candidates had endured multiple disruptions that distinguished them from previous groups. “This cohort has faced a lot of challenges in education,” he said. 

“They started Senior One in 2020 just as the Competency-Based Curriculum was being rolled out, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to shut schools for the longest period in recent history. When they returned, they had to adapt to a new lower secondary curriculum whose implementation was still full of teething problems, including limited teaching materials, uneven teacher preparation and constant adjustments.”

UNEB spokesperson Jennifer Kalule appealed to school directors and headteachers not to prevent candidates with outstanding school fees from sitting the examinations. “We urge school directors and headteachers not to lock out school fees defaulters from sitting the examinations. Every registered candidate should be allowed to sit,” she said. Kalule added that schools should report candidates sitting the examinations with outstanding fees to UNEB to enable the board to withhold their results from the SMS results dissemination system once they are released.