KAMPALA – Over 32,000 students have on Monday commenced their Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB) May/June 2024 examinations series.
Addressing the press on Saturday, Onesmus Oyesigye – Board Executive Secretary revealed that they registered 32,726 candidates for the exams running up to 14th June 2024 at 294 examination centres.
Of these candidates, revealed that 17,357 are females and 15,369 are males.
On Monday, Michael Rujumba, Deputy Principal, Nakawa Vocational Training College told the press that they have started with practical exams on Vocational Diplomas in Electrical and Automobile Engineering.
“It is amazing that our Vocational Diplomas and National Diplomas are so marketable that the dropout is almost zero. All that we started with are still with us. We admitted 780 students in only diploma programmes, both national and vocational and all of them are still here.”
He noted that the main cause of dropout is school fees because these courses are quite expensive but “we have got a mechanism of allowing learners to pay in installments but even when they are not able to complete the fees, we talk to them and see how we can schedule a payment plan for future.”
He, however, decried the cost of the learning materials which remains the biggest challenge.
“The competition to what we use in terms of training is the same market the industry goes to picking what to use in their industries. This is expensive. I wish the government put incentives so that schools are tax-exempted on materials we buy to train students.”
Hajjat Shakilla Lwanga, Head of Department, Electricity at the College revealed that they started with Instrumentation Part One, which is required very much in the industry.
She is optimistic about the good performance of their students because, “We have been to many industries; Breweries, Roofings, Coca-Cola for study visits and normally they take us through what happens and that is the beauty of these Vocational Diplomas.”
Mr. Kambaho Narasi Anyijuka, Principle Communications Public Relations at UBTEB commended all the technical staff and Heads of Centres for ensuring that the examinations start on time in accordance with Board regulations.
“We want to ask the heads of centres to make sure the rules are complied with to the dot for the smooth conduct of the examinations.”
