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UNEB: UGANDA NATIONAL EXAMINATION BOARD
www.uneb.ac.ug

Historical background

Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) is an assessment body with systems of examination formats and grading inherited from the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. The Syndicate was responsible for school examinations in the British colonies until 1968 in the case of East African Countries. In 1968 the East African Examinations Council (EAEC) came into being, and in collaboration with the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate took over Secondary School Examinations and issued joint certificates. This was a gradual separation of East African countries from the Syndicate.

 

In 1971, the EAEC became independent. The EAEC conducted Secondary School Examinations and issued the East African Certificate of Education (EACE) and the East African Advanced Certificate of Education (EAACE). The EAEC also took over Business Examinations from the Royal Society of Arts and Technical Examinations from City and Guilds of London. This arrangement went on up to June 1980 when the EAC broke up and Uganda started conducting its own Examinations. Consequently, the East African Certificate of Education (EACE) was renamed the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE), while the East African Advanced Certificate of Education (EAACE) was renamed the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE).

 

In 1983, the Primary Leaving Examination Section was transferred from the Ministry of Education to UNEB. From 1991 to 1998 UNEB was also responsible for Primary Teachers’ Examinations. In 1999 the Government shifted Primary Teachers’ Examinations to the Institute of Teacher Education, Kyambogo, nowKyambogo University.

In 2008, an Act of Parliament established the Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB) responsible for examinations in Business, Technical and Vocational training. The 2008 BTVET Act removed the responsibility of conducting Business and Technical Examinations from UNEB and vested it in UBTEB in a phased manner. The last examination will be conducted in 2014, and thereafter UNEB will be responsible for school examinations at primary and secondary school levels as follows:

  • Primary Leaving Examination
  • Uganda Certificate of Education Examination
  • Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education Examination.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND MANDATE

UNEB was established by an Act of Parliament in 1983, Cap 137 Laws of Uganda; legalizing all actions taken with effect from 1st July 1980 when it effectively started operating. The Board is a body corporate mandated to conduct and manage examinations in Uganda for the end of the educational cycle at Primary and Secondary school level: and to conduct examination-related research.

 

STATUTORY FUNCTIONS OF UNEB

The functions of UNEB are to:

  1. conduct primary, secondary, and such other examinations within Uganda as it may consider desirable in the public interest;
  2. publish past examination papers;
  3. award certificates to successful candidates in such examinations;
  4. invite anybody or bodies outside Uganda, as it may think fit, and to jointly conduct academic and other examinations;
  5. award acceptable certificates to successful candidates jointly with the invited bodies;
  6. invite other bodies, as it may think fit, to conduct examinations and award acceptable certificates or diplomas;
  7. advise anybody or bodies so invited under paragraph (f) upon the adoptation of examinations necessary for the requirements of Uganda and to assist any such body or bodies to conduct such examinations;
  8. make arrangements for the conduct of research and development of examination systems;
  9. makerules regulating the conduct of examinations and for all purposes incidental thereto.