Radio, TV lessons helped our children – Busia parents

Busia, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Several parents in Busia district want the government to maintain radio and television lessons, saying they contributed great to the performance of their children in the just-released Primary Leaving Examination-PLE results.

A number of parents interviewed by URN say that when the government closed schools last year as part of the COVID-19 containment measures, they lost hope that their children would post poor results citing poor concentration at home.

However, the parents say that the performance of their children in last year’s PLE surprised them. Apollo Hasasha, a resident of Madibira in Busia Municipality says that his daughter who sat her PLE at Madibira P/S collected eight aggregates and managed to pass in division one because she spent time following the lessons on television.

Hasasha says that he only stepped in to provide further explanations where the daughter could not understand certain areas. He says that through the television lessons, his daughter managed to cover what they had not covered at school.

George Samuel Okambo, another resident says that his grandson also managed to score eight aggregates because of following TV and radio lessons. Okambo asked the government to maintain the radio and TV lessons, saying that the congestion resulting from the disruptions may affect many learners.

Hellen Naume Nafula, another resident appealed to the government to fulfil the promise of distributing radio sets countrywide to help learners whose parents cannot afford to buy radio and TV sets.

Mathias Martin Mugeni, the headteacher of Madibira Primary school in Busia Municipality confirmed that TV and radio lessons contributed a lot to the success of their learners in PLE. He says that although they had covered the biggest part of the syllabus by the time the schools closed, TV and radio lessons helped keep the learners busy given the long time they spent at home without attending physical lessons.

Esther Logose and Musa Bandar were candidates. They both passed in division one. The duo say they were able to make it by learning through TV lessons. Logose, whose dream is to become a medical doctor scored eight aggregates.

Musa Bandar says that he learnt new words and some areas through TV lessons.

According to Uganda National Examination Board- UNEB, 749,932 candidates registered for PLE. 81,864 passed in division one, 416,575 in division two compared to 69,243 and 387,398 in 2019 respectively.

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URN