The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A few school head teachers within Mukono district have challenged Uganda National Examinations Board – UNEB secretary, Dan Odongo on discouraging schools from complete the syllabus in senior three.
Odongo in his statement while releasing results of the 2019 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations on Friday noted that schools skip topics and important principals trying to complete the syllabus in senior three.
“Some topics are either skipped or lightly dealt with and learners miss out the basic principles. The reasons for this practice is supposedly to have time for revision. However, when learners have not grasped the subject matter initially, the revision is ineffective,” noted Odongo.
However, some head teachers in Mukono district claim that all topics can be dealt with from senior one to three once competent teachers are deployed to do the work. They believe the more the syllabus is prolonged, learners find insufficient time for revision.
The head teacher Seeta High School Mbalala Campus, Boniface Ssebukalu says many schools forget that students’ mind is always open in senior one since they are prepared in primary school to take a lot.
According to Ssebukalu the major cause of setback in performance is failure to master language used in communication. Schools have ignored debates, interactions and writing clubs which affects their writing tactics.
Teopista Nakalembe, the head teacher of Mt Saint Henry’s Mukono notes that many teachers think of only spotting topics and at the end they are out spotted. She said to avoid this issue of being out spotted, Nakalembe says students need to complete the syllabus in senior three and then use senior four for revision.
Odongo spotted other challenges as language deficiency, theoretical approach in practical topics among science subjects and spotting among others.
The head teacher of Bishop Secondary School, Robert Kyakulaga also believes that the entire challenge hindering good performance stems from failures to complete syllabus in time. “Discipline among students, teamwork and completing the syllabus early creates sufficient time for revision,” he added.
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