Students under Uganda’s new lower secondary school curriculum are more confident, better communicators, and capable of applying knowledge to real-life situations, according to the Minister of State for Education and Sports, Peter Ogwang.
Presenting a statement on the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) grading system to Parliament on Thursday, February 20, 2025, Ogwang emphasized that the new curriculum prioritizes competence over memorization.
“It focuses on measuring practical proficiency and the ability to solve problems rather than simply recalling facts,” he said.
The revised grading system, introduced alongside the competence-based curriculum in 2020, replaces content-based assessment with a system that evaluates students on knowledge application, skills, and attitudes. The new approach includes Continuous Assessment (CA) and project work, in addition to traditional end-of-cycle examinations.
Ogwang explained that the UNEB, in consultation with the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), designed a new reporting mechanism that assigns letter grades—A, B, C, D, or E—to indicate a learner’s level of achievement.
“The Ministry of Education and Sports approved this system to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of students' abilities,” he said.
Project work is assessed at the school level and presented separately on students' certificates to highlight their ability to solve contemporary problems creatively. The final score comprises 20% from school-based assessments and 80% from the national examination.
Under the grading system, students receive:
- A for exceptional performance
- B for outstanding performance
- C for satisfactory performance
- D for basic understanding
- E for elementary proficiency
