UACE 2022: Failure in Physics, Biology to cause shortage of doctors

According to the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), the two subjects were the worst done subjects in the 2022 UACE exams which is worrying since it would lead to less candidates being admitted for medical courses at the university.

Biology and Chemistry are the essential subjects for one to be admitted into the Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery academic programme at the university. Physics and Mathematics meanwhile are subsidiaries but also crucial for one to be admitted in the programme.

This means a candidate must have scored principle passes in all those subjects for them to be considered for admission in to the programme.

UNEB ranked Biology the worst done subject.

A total of 17,994 candidates sat for the subject last year and only 28.8% scored between A – E.

Of the total number of candidates who sat for the subject, 12,811 didn’t score a principle pass in the subject.

“Performance in Biology has again dropped compared to 2020 exam results this year,” the UNEB executive secretary, Daniel Odongo, said during the release of the results yesterday.

According to UNEB data, a total of 12,994 sat for Physics last yearn in the UACE exams compared to 13,473 in 2020.

52% candidates scored between A -E in the subject last year.

According to UNEB, a total of 97,889 candidates registered for the examinations from 1, 969 centres. Of the registered candidates, 42% (41,113) were females while 58% (56,776) were males.

Despite the poor performance in both Physics and Biology, UNEB registered an overall better performance compared to 2020.

Data from UNEB also indicated that 99.2% of the total number of candidates who sat for the exams qualified for the UACE award.

In 2022, more candidates were able to get 3 principal passes compared to 2020. For instance, in 2022, 41,973 (representing 43.5%) candidates got 3 principal passes compared to 41,411 (representing 42.5%) candidates.

At the minimum of 2 principal passes required for admission into university, 67,815 (70.3%) qualified compared to 69.8% in 2020.