The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Soroti Municipal Council authorities are redirecting efforts to equip teachers with knowledge-based skills in problem-solving for learners.
The development follows Primary Leaving Examinations, PLE results that showed that a number of candidates in last year’s examinations failed questions requiring knowledge application in problem- solving situations.
The UNEB Executive Secretary, Dan Odong noted that many candidates had slipped into cram work for years, making it hard for them to pass questions requiring free expression. Cram work was attributed to poor performance in PLE last year, were just a handful of candidates passed with 4s and 5s aggregate.
In Soroti Municipality, the performance of candidates in Division One dropped from 356 to 208 with one candidate scoring five aggregate. Nine out of 18 government-aided schools failed to raise any first-grade candidate and seven out of 32 private schools failed to raise a single candidate in division one in the Municipality.
Party Emokor, the Municipal Inspector of Schools says they have taken issues of cramming as a serious concern that needs to be handled in order to help learners, not only pass examinations but possess knowledge and skills for survival.
He revealed that some schools have been blacklisted for sending children to other schools for higher levels of education because of consistent failure by old students. He notes that while the students score highly in national examinations that enable them to join good schools, a good number is eliminated as they fail to meet the required termly marks.
He notes that competition for learners, mostly engineered by private schools is spiralling cram work in schools. Emokor plans to convene meetings with proprietors of private schools to discuss issues of cram work in passing examinations.
But Paul Etyang, the chairperson of headteachers’ association in Soroti municipality instead faults the teacher training school backgrounds that he observed focus on oral and theoretical approaches rather than knowledge acquisition.
Etyang, however, noted that whereas competition is driving private schools to concentrate on examinations approaches, there is need to change attitude of parents who tend to look at first grade as the only mark for better performance.
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