This article was first published on the New Vision website on April 7, 2023
By John Masaba
The government has announced that it will phase out the advanced craft certificate qualification.
According to Onesmus Oyesigye, the executive secretary for the Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB), student enrollment in the course will be done for the next two years, after which the course will be stopped.
He explained that the move is a recommendation of the 2016 national curriculum review, which recommended that teaching of the advanced craft certificate program be stopped.
“The Board is giving all those graduates in the world of work who still require to pursue advanced craft programs the opportunity to do so within the next two years, effective from this November or December 2023,” he said.
He made the revelation on Wednesday while releasing the UBTEB results for the November/ December sitting.
A total of 72,247 students sat for the exams, out of which 34,736 (48 percent) were candidates in the modularized programs and 37,511 (52 percent) were at the end of the program (non-modular) programs.
It was revealed that there had been a decline in absenteeism, which dropped to 7.3 percent from 19 percent.
However, the absenteeism rates among the candidates remain high registering for Advanced Craft Examinations.
He attributed this to the fact that many of the candidates for the program are “working students who register later and fail to get time to sit examinations due to work pressures.”
He emphasized, however, that such students are walking a tightrope because they might have to forfeit the qualification altogether. After all, the program will be no more by 2025.
