By Frank Kamuntu
One would be right to say the renowned education pundit Prof Lawrence Muganga is currently chilling on Cloud 9 smiling ear to ear, being a weekend happily sipping on a glass of his favorite wine. This after the Ministry of Education & Sports embraced competency-based learning and dropped the failure grade, something he has been restlessly advocating for.
Under the new competency-based curriculum, UNEB will be assigning Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examination scores using an alphabetical format to substitute the numerical distinction, credit, pass and failure ranking.
The new curriculum will recognise competencies and grade candidates using the letter grades; A, B, C, D, and E. Each letter grade will correspond to a particular level of achievement of that particular competence.
In his message shared via his X handle, Prof Muganga who proudly doubles as the Vice Chancellor of Uganda’s mighty education hub Victoria University, commended the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) for finally starting a journey to the world of ‘meaningful education’.
”Today, on behalf of Ugandans who love and care about meaningful education, I applaud the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) and Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) for their transformative work in lower secondary education. Embracing Competency-Based Learning (CBL) and Assessment is a bold and visionary step – You’ve taken a bold step towards education that truly makes sense,” noted a jubilant Muganga.
The famous author of EA’s 1st AI book ‘From Chalk To CHATBOTS’, Muganga says that dropping the “F” grade which branded learners as failures will empower learners to focus on their skills, competencies and, knowledge.
Muganga also made a plea to the legislature, ”t𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐈 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚. 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐎𝐄𝐒, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐮𝐦. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚’𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲.”
Further Muganga says the future of Uganda’s education is brighter courtesy of Minister of Education and Sports H.E. Hon. Janet Museveni’s wise leadership. ”To H.E. Hon. Janet Museveni i give you your flowers. The future of education in Uganda is looking brighter. With your continued vision, we move closer to the promised land. Well done!”
Changes In UNEB’s Grading System That Thrilled Prof Muganga & Other Ugandans
In the new system, scores in the national examination will constitute 80 percent of the final mark, while continuous assessment will account for 20 percent.
The cumulative mark is the year-on-year computation by schools of individual student’s performance in practical projects, which are filed with UNEB on an annual basis, as evidence the learners have gained hands-on life skills.
Citing the competence evaluation under the new curriculum, UNEB says this format of scoring O-Level leavers was unfair because it narrowly concentrated on performance only in final papers and did not take care of overall skills a learner obtained during the four years of schooling.
As a result, under the new grading system, UNEB will show the alphabetical scores on the front of the certificate and detail corresponding actual skills on the back of the document.
The Senior Four alumni will also be issued a separate certificate for project work.
This is a groundbreaking achievement in the education sector and has highly been welcomed by not only teachers but also parents and learners since there will be no failures. No learner will be walking out with nothing. Even grade E, which is the lowest, will describe the competencies a candidate has been able to acquire.
𝐀 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Whoever does good things deserves recognition and celebration. Today, on behalf of Ugandans who love and care about meaningful education, I applaud the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) and Uganda National… pic.twitter.com/fxTYyCEMae
— ᗪᖇ. ᒪᗩᗯᖇEᑎᑕE ᗰᑌGᗩᑎGᗩ (@ReachDrMuganga) June 22, 2024
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