In 2020, Uganda embarked on a significant transformation of secondary education with the introduction of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

This new curriculum is designed to move education beyond memorisation and examination performance towards the development of competencies, practical skills, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and the ability to apply knowledge to real-life situations.

These learners finished S4 at 2024, and those who opted for A-level are now in Senior Six. This milestone marks an important moment to pause and ask: What has this new approach actually produced?

So, as the pioneers of the new curriculum prepare to complete their secondary education, it is important for us to reflect on their journey. Have they developed the competencies and skills the curriculum set out to nurture?

Are they more confident, creative, innovative and capable of applying what they learned, as envisioned by the CBC? What has worked well, and where have schools, teachers, learners and policymakers struggled?

More importantly, are these learners adequately prepared for university, the world of work and life beyond school? These questions deserve an honest and evidence-based conversation as Uganda considers the future of its education system.

As a teacher, who has taught both old and new curriculum, I have important observations to make.

To begin with, the new curriculum has eliminated the need to repeat S.4. This has happened in two ways, first by making UCE registration too stringent, and the other one is that almost everyone one passes the final exams.

UNEB registration now happens twice, first in S.3 (for continuous assessment), and then again in S.4 for UNEB exams.

Secondly, the new curriculum has made it easy to pass UCE exams, we now have no students repeating UCE. I will give an example. In 2024, Lira Town College registered 438 candidates. Out of this, 437 got result 1, and only one student got result 2.

According to UNEB, anyone who gets result 1 has passed, and can proceed to next level. Now, a pass rate approaching 100% in many schools sounds like good news, but it also raises important questions.

If 99% of learners pass, then it means our assessments are failing to distinguish different levels of competence, understanding and mastery.

A good education system should certainly enable more learners to succeed, but success should not mean lowering the bar.

Has the new curriculum lowered the bar of passing exams? For me, I see that it is Continuous Assessment (CA), scored by teachers at school, that has led to the high pass rate. CA contributes 20% of the total score, and teachers deliberately give big scores, so that it’s seen that they have taught well.

And this leads me to my third point. As a result of almost everyone passing, there has been a significant increase in enrolment in A-Level across the country. If you perform well at O-Level, you are more likely to secure a good subject combination at A-Level, especially in the sciences.

This has created greater demand for A-Level places, particularly among students aiming for science-based careers.

Finally, the new curriculum was designed to make the learners more confident, creative, innovative and capable of applying what they learned. It was supposed to be the answer to unemployment.

Is this happening? I would say yes and no. Yes, because our classrooms are now more interactive, and our learners are increasingly able to suggest solutions to real-life challenges. This has been made possible by giving them scenario-based questions.

Also, innovation is happening, because each student must come up with a project that solves a community or environment problem.

As I conclude, the pioneers of Uganda’s Competency-Based Curriculum have shown promising outcomes. However, the real test of the new curriculum is not how many learners pass UCE, but what they can actually do with what they have learned.

Can they think independently, solve problems, communicate effectively, innovate, work with others and adapt to life beyond school? The pioneers have now reached S.6.

Now is the time to listen to them, observe what they can do, and ask ourselves honestly. Have we truly prepared them for life beyond the classroom? The jury is all of us.

Emmanuel Angoda is the founder of Triskelion Education and Skills Initiative (TESI) and a teacher at Lira Town College. | angodaemmanuel@gmail.com