In a nationwide initiative, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) and the exam organization, UNEB, will register all secondary school students.
“The goal of this exercise is to collect continuous assessment scores beginning in term one of 2023. “This is in line with the revised lower secondary school curriculum,” said Dr. Peter P. Wakabi-Waiswa, UNEB’s director of technology and reprographics.
Dr. Wakabi informed the media at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala that all secondary schools must register with UNEB in order to submit the continuous assessment of their students’ test results.
The registration process by NIRA, according to officials, will guarantee that each student receives a National Identification Number (NIN) that will be used during the continuous evaluation process during the UCE and UACE tests.
“Continuous assessment is one of the key elements of the redesigned curriculum, and every topic has one without which a student would not receive a grade in that subject at the conclusion of the cycle”
According to Dr. Wakabi, secondary schools that have not registered for continuous assessment are not permitted to register students for end-of-cycle (UACE) exams. UNEB is mandated to use national ID numbers (NINs) to uniquely identify students in the process of continuous evaluation.
The exercise has begun, according to the UNEB director, and will last for the following two weeks of breaks for all students nationwide through January 31.
To this aim, she said they have set up registration counters at Boma grounds across important districts and cities in the country. According to NIRA Executive Director Rosemary Kisembo, they will prioritize registering and issuing NINs to learners all over the country.
According to Kisembo, “Students or learners are part of the inhabitants of this country and Section 5 of the Registration of Persons Act demands us to register all of them.”
Every citizen must obtain a NIN in order to serve a variety of objectives, according to the NIRA ED.
“Even beyond your schooling, it is the special number that will accompany you all the way to death. It is a special number that will be utilized by all aspects of your life, including employment, education, health, and travel. Students should take advantage of this break to register and receive NINs.
Those who registered for the 2017–18 Learners Registration, according to Kisembo, don’t need to register again, but they should monitor the NIRA website to see how their applications are progressing.
According to the NIRA Executive Director, secondary school students must provide their parents’ NINs in order to successfully register.
“Let’s say your parents have passed away. If your grandparents are still alive, every kid born to them, or your brothers if they have a NIN, must be presented with a NIN. This is so that Ugandan residents can receive citizenship based on their parents’ or grandparents’ names. Your identity might be determined by a grandchild or a kid of your parents, Kisembo stated.
She pointed out that the test is free and that candidate courses are unaffected by it.
While registration at NIRA closes on January 31st, the UNEB director for technology and reprographics stated that UNEB will begin collecting data for learners as soon as the term begins.
