The Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examinations Board [UNMEB] has released results of May 2014 exams indicating that out of 2805 candidates who sat, 265 failed.

The results have been released by education and sports minister Maj. Jessica Alupo at ministry headquarters.

UNMEB executive secretary Helen Kataratambi Mukakarisa however, said that the performance was generally good compared to last year 2013 because whereas in 2013, 85% students passed, this time, the figure went up to 91%.

The results however, indicated that the students specialized mainly in credits as there were a few distinctions mainly at certificate level.

For example in Certificate in Mental health nursing, out of the 89 candidates, none of them got a distinction instead 58 got credits, 26 passed and 5 were ungraded.

In certificate in midwifery, out of 456 candidates, only one got a distinction while 302 got passes and 119 got credits leaving 34 students with failures.

In certificate in nursing, out of 622 candidates, 293 got passes, 283 credits, 3 got distinctions and 43 failed completely while in certificate in comprehensive nursing, 807 of them got passes, 514 credits, 8 distinctions and 157 failed bringing a total of 1486.

She says out of the 2653 certificate candidates, 2414 [91%] passed with 12 candidates passing with distinctions, 974 credits and 1428 passes while 239 candidates were ungraded.

As for Diploma performances, in nursing, out of 48 candidates, 38 just passed while 10 got failures, while in Diploma [comprehensive nursing], 15 candidates all passed with no failures, diploma [midwifery] 71 passed and 14 failed while in diploma [mental health nursing] 2 passed and 2 failed bringing the 126 passed and 26 failures in diploma.

UNMEB board chairman Prof. Wilton Kezaala said the ratio between nurses and students are still high due to lack of tutors which affects performance of students.