Opting out of A-Level

A-Level course a waste of resources?

For Dr. Mary Goretti Nakabugo, the head of Uwezo— a Twaweza East Africa   programme that tracks learning and numeracy outcomes around the region— if the recent trend is reflected by a direct increase in the number of students opting for technical courses in colleges around Uganda, it is a positive one.

“It is not a negative trend at all; especially if it is the choice of the students,” Dr. Nakabugo told The Independent on Feb.22.

“It does not matter where one starts from  because I have seen quite a number of people who started off with certificate courses after P7 and went on to upgrade and they are really good today.”

“As long as the student pursues a course where they have passion, they can always upgrade and get the degree later in their career.”

But Simon Atagwirweho, 35,a graduate of laboratory biotechnology from Makerere University told The Independent that unlike rich parents; most Ugandan parents are poor and when they weigh the option of taking their children to A-Level—a course which lasts two years—they choose to go for the other available option (certificate or diploma courses).

This is what Janet Babirye did in 2010.

After scoring poor grades in her UCE exams, her hopes of continuing to A-Level and, thereafter, pursue her dream course at university (pharmacy) were crashed.

Normally, most Ugandans students would choose to repeat the candidate class hoping to do better. Babirye instead chose to do a two-and-half year nursing and midwifery course at Mengo School of Nursing and Midwifery in Kampala.

She qualified in 2014 as an enrolled nurse and midwife and immediately got employed in a dispensary in Kampala. Looking back, Babirye told The Independent that she has no regrets for having forfeited the two years that she would otherwise have spent studying at A-Level.

Nakabugo says one advantage of joining college after O-Level is that you can upgrade afterwards from certificate to diploma up to degree level in an area where you have interest.

Nakabugo told The Independent that there are a number of students in Uganda who go up to A-Level and continue to university for the sake of it.

“It is not a matter of looking for a degree; it is looking for something where one has interest,” she said.

Nakabugo could be right.

Supporters of vocational and technical education say people with such skills do not only boost local enterprises to increase productivity and profit, such trained people enable the economy to expand and grow.

Still, Nakabugo says, for the students who are keen on going for A-Level and if they have the capacity to go to university, it is also okay.

“But we should not look at the ones branching off into BTVET after O-Level as a negative trend,” Nakabugo said.

“You would rather have a change in attitude where a student says ‘I will go into BTVET, start work, and upgrade later on in their career.’”