On 19th January 2019 Mr. Manyindo Frank, the Headteacher Nyakasura School, Mr. Rwabwogo James Bond, a teacher at Kahungabunyonyi school and Mr. Baguma Patrick , a parent and politician were hosted live on ToroDev’s supported weekly talk show ‘Orukurato’ on Hits Fm to discuss the performance of the just released Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) results for 2018.
While giving opening remarks and quoting the words from Uneb Executive secretary Mr Odongo Dan, the moderator Mr Kasigazi William highlighted that 671923 pupils registered to sit for PLE in the whole country, 659633 pupils sat for their exams while 12963 pupils missed their exams.
Mr. Rwabwogo James while commenting on the number of pupils that missed their exams said it is important to make research and verify what happened to these pupils; is it that they dropped out of school after registration, was it sickness, what happened? He requested for an action from government on the issue. Mr Rwabwogo said when Universal Primary Education (UPE) started in 1996, 2,200,000 pupils registered compared to 8,437,609 pupils as of 2017.
Mr Rwabwogo said urban schools have continued performing better than rural schools much as there has been reduced failure rate from 9.1 per cent (57,354) in 2017 to 8.6 percent (56,106) in 2018. He said according to Uneb records 2018, 31,758 (9.4 per cent of 346,963 girls failed compared to 24,350 (7.7 per cent) of the 324,963 boys who appeared for the examinations. Parents still have left their responsibilities of supporting their children’s education to government like when UPE had just started despite efforts by Civil society organizations and teachers sensitizing parents and pupils to contribute lunch, uniform and other scholastic materials. Many schools still go without lunch which has affected their performance. Peer pressure, child marriages, poverty at house hold level and to some extent natural calamities have all contributed to pupils dropping out of schools and missing to six their final exams or completing their primary level education.
The Minister of Education and Sports, Ms Janet Museveni while releasing the results on 17th January 2019 said she had emphasized the problem of lack of meals because of the impact it has caused on the child’s ability to concentrate and learn effectively. ’’We are undertaking target interventions in some of the districts to try and improve learning conditions and outcomes’’. Ms Museveni said. However she asked teachers to emphasize skills development to understand their environment better saying that teachers must refocus the method of teaching for learners to know about the skills needed in their environment.
The head teacher Nyakasura School, Mr Manyindo while sharing his views said these days education has become a business hence some schools teach children to pass exams however few schools teach children to understand and all these have to some extent contributed to the sustainability of schools performance.
Mr Manyindo said there are a number of factors to put in place while educating children for example; A parent contributes much to sustaining a child in school, Teachers should have time to teach not just aim at finishing the syllabus, there should be pupil- teacher relationship to encourage and motivate children to stay in school and complete their education. The quality of education is something big to consider, there used to be skills development in schools but now it is no more. The way we feed our children also contributes a lot to the brain of the child, some homesteads eat one meal a day which is even not balanced diet, because of poverty in communities children go the whole day on empty stomach something that has reduced their level of concentration in class hence poor performance. We therefore, need to go back to our original way of eating our local balanced diet food that help the body and mind to grow and function well.
During the 2 hours live radio discussion, Mr Baguma Patrick , a parent said if we need to improve education and performance of our children, we need to sensitize parents to support education of their children than living the responsibility to government which to some extent cannot handle and also avoid politicking while promoting education. He further said there is observation that given the population of Uganda, the biggest percentage is a young age bracket but still when you look at the number sitting PLE you realize that many children are not in school and many are dropping out before completion. There is need for government and all other stakeholders to join hands, avoid politics in education but also support our children to attain the best education that will help them to be responsible citizens in future.
Callers we given opportunity to participate during the discuss; ‘’There used to be patterns that taught children good English, these days even pattern books are no where in markets or our libraries, what happened to the curriculum?’’ Asked Job Kiiza a caller from Rubona Town Council in Bunyangabu district, ‘’The National Curriculum Development Center need to do research and find out wheather diverting from our old way of teaching children has contributed to children’s failure or lack of required knowledge and skills’’ said Moses Mutabazi a caller from Kitumba in Kabarole district, ‘’We appreciate Civil society organizations for sensitizing and informing us on our roles and responsibilities as parents, however, more needs to be done to help parents understand the importance of educating their children’’, said Madam Rose Monday a caller from Kyenjojo district.
We are pleased for the efforts of all our development partners who have supported information access for our people to make informed decisions.
