By KT Reporter
The release of the 2024 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) results has ignited a nationwide debate over Uganda’s education system, with the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) facing sharp criticism from parents and teachers.
At the centre of the controversy is the board’s decision to assess Social Studies (SST) using a competence-based approach, which many blame for the subject’s generally poor performance.
UNEB has attributed the weak results largely to teachers’ failure to effectively embrace competence-based teaching methods. However, critics argue that the board is unfairly shifting blame to teachers, insisting that primary schools do not operate under a competence-based curriculum.
The debate has been further fuelled by the Ministry of Education and Sports’ announcement that it plans to review the primary school syllabus, raising questions about why examinations appear to be evolving faster than classroom instruction.
One of the dissatisfied parents is Jackline Amanda, whose child narrowly missed a first-grade aggregate due to poor performance in SST. “I have seen UNEB explaining that they used competence-based assessment, but why did they use it when there is no competence-based curriculum in primary? They started the competence curriculum in secondary,” Amanda told Uganda Radio Network (URN).
Her concerns mirror a growing wave of frustration on social media, where parents accuse UNEB of imposing an assessment model that is misaligned with how pupils are taught. For many, the timing of the curriculum review announcement has only deepened suspicion that learners are being examined under a system that schools are not adequately prepared for.
However, education authorities insist that this perception is misplaced. Bernadette Nambi Karuhanga, the Director of the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), says competence-based education has been part of Uganda’s primary school system for well over a decade.
She explains that the shift began in 2007 with the introduction of the thematic curriculum for lower primary (P1-P3) and was extended to upper primary by 2013. This means primary schools have operated under a competence-based curriculum for at least 13 years, long before the secondary school curriculum was reviewed.
Nambi emphasised that UNEB only examines content prescribed in the national curriculum, which is designed to promote competencies rather than rote memorisation. “The curriculum clearly guides teachers on the methods they should use. Learning is meant to move away from cramming towards application,” she said, adding that the real concern lies in classroom practice.
She questioned whether teachers consistently follow the recommended teaching approaches during instruction.
Addressing concerns about the ongoing curriculum review, Nambi said periodic evaluation is both normal and necessary. “A curriculum, where it is good, must be reviewed after a given time frame to see how it has performed, update it, or make necessary adjustments,” she explained.
Interviews conducted by URN with teachers suggest that many educators are aware of the competence-based approach and the expectations it brings. Godlove Baguma, a teacher at Real Quality Junior School in Nansana, said he personally experienced the transition while training as a teacher.
“When the competency-based curriculum was being rolled out, I was still in college, and our training had already shifted to prepare us for the new approach,” Baguma said. However, he pointed to a long-standing challenge in implementation.
According to Baguma, some schools have continued to teach primarily with examinations in mind, shaping lessons around UNEB’s traditional testing styles rather than the curriculum’s competence-based intent.
A recurring concern emerging from discussions with both teachers and curriculum developers is the delayed alignment between curriculum and assessment. If competence-based education has existed at the primary level for years, why did competence-based examinations take so long to follow?
UNEB Executive Secretary Dan Odongo acknowledged that the transition has not been seamless. In an exclusive interview with URN, he admitted that there were delays in fully implementing competence-based assessment at the primary level following the 2013 curriculum rollout.
Nevertheless, Odongo said UNEB has been making gradual progress in recent years. “We have been slowly adopting competence-based questions,” he noted.
According to Odongo, PLE papers from the past five years demonstrate increasing alignment with the curriculum’s competence-based requirements.
This period coincides with the rollout of the lower secondary competence-based curriculum, which helped build national capacity in assessment design. Sources within UNEB and the Ministry of Education revealed that earlier delays were partly due to limited technical expertise.
URN has learned that UNEB strengthened its assessment capacity during the lower secondary curriculum implementation, with support from partners including the British Council.
As the debate continues, education stakeholders agree on one point: without full alignment between curriculum, teaching practice, and assessment, learners will continue to bear the cost of systemic gaps, no matter how well-intentioned the reforms may be.
-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
