By Mark Kawalya
For many Ugandan students, the start of the examination period comes with a lot of anxiety and stress. This is because a lot of parents emphasize academic performance as the pathway to their offspring’s success.
Passuneb is a digital learning solution that assists students in achieving their academic goals. The simple, no-frills site is a repository for educational material such as past papers that help students revise and get an idea of possible question formats to expect as they sit Uganda National Examinations.
The site caters to the needs of students at both the primary and secondary levels of education, making it one of the most widely used in Uganda.
“As believers in education, learning is a right for all. However, it is expensive and is a privilege for only a few. This is the problem we seek to address. As an open education resource, this web application provides students with free and accessible learning materials, which come at a lower cost and create a more interesting revision environment for students.” Says Bazira Kevin, the founder of the startup.
The Passuneb site features an online self-test tab through which students can access a large database of revision questions that they can choose to attempt online or download and use at their convenience. The questions also have answers that students can use as a guide.
There is also an E-Library category that has collections of books on various subjects that students can download and read online. This is a free service that students can access, which is a feature that ties into the firm’s ‘make education accessible to all’ model.
A Career and Guidance section gives students information on various career options and the necessary educational requirements that they need. It also has tips on excelling in exams, school selection and what to expect as they make the move from secondary school to university life. It additionally gives advice on starting a career and covers topics like how to pass interviews.
This section also has testimonials from students with strong academic backgrounds and traces their journeys through university into the corporate environment. This area is highly lauded as a strong motivator for students who need positive stories about education from people that have walked that journey.
“I found the past papers on the website very inciteful,” says Robert Kiseka, who recently joined university. “They gave me an idea of what to expect as I sat for my A-level exams.”
