Private schools outshine govt-aided counterparts
Left to right: Uneb executive director Dan Ondongo, Uneb chairperson Prof Celestino Obua, Education Minister Janet Museveni, State Minister for Higher Education John Chrysostom Muyingo, State Minister for Primary Education Joyce Moriku Kaducu and State Minister for Sports Peter Ogwang, during the release of the 2023 UACE results at State House, Nakasero in Kampala on March 7, 2023. PHOTO | FRANK BAGUMA
What you need to know:
- State Minister for Higher Education attributes the status quo to lack of strict supervision by the leaders in government schools.
As has been the trend for some time now, private schools outperformed government-aided schools in the just released 2023 Uganda Advanced Certificate Examinations (UACE).
Although the Uganda National Examination Board (Uneb) showed improved performance as compared to last year, the schools implementing the Universal Post O-Level Education and Training (UPOLET) programme were still no match for the private schools.
According to statistics from Uneb, 110,553 candidates registered for the 2023 UACE. The number of students who actually wrote their final exams was 109,488. Of these, 24,679 registered under the UPOLET programme last year compared to 17,321 in 2022.
Uneb highlighted that a large number of students were not under the universal education programme.
Although the rankings indicated that the best-performing school under UPOLET scored an average of 18 points, no school has average points of 17 and 16.
Additionally, only two schools have average points of 15 and 14 as compared to the private ones where one school has average points of 17, five schools with 16, 11 schools with 15 and 27 schools with 14 average points.
The two worst-performing schools under the UPOLET programme scored only one average point. Elsewhere, the worst performers amongst the private schools did not have any average points.
Ms Jennifer Kalule, the principal public relations officer of Uneb, said they are yet to ascertain why government-aided schools continue to perform poorly.
Mr John Chrysostom Muyingo, the junior Higher Education minister, said although government-aided schools are performing poorly, a vast number of them outperform private schools. He, however, hastened to add that government-aided schools performing poorly have a challenge of leadership. He for instance noted that teachers are not supervised and end up devoting their attention and energies elsewhere.
“The problem is more of leadership. Those that have got good leadership whether day or seed or government have excellent results. You go to Mengo and see. Where leadership has got problems like in Old Kampala, it is a good school with all facilities, but it doesn’t produce results,” Minister Muyingo said.
Minister Muyingo also explained that some government-aided schools lack facilities like libraries, science laboratories, and computer laboratories.
Others can’t access electricity. These bottlenecks have not eluded the government’s studious gaze, the minister assured.
He, however, noted that before the government comes in, head teachers, school inspectors, school management committees, and boards of government-aided schools must execute their supervisory role. This, he added, is critical in the education system.
“Where the parents are actively participating in the leadership of the school, the results are fantastic … where the parents don’t care, teachers are also on their own, the head teacher is never in the school, [results are dire],” Minister Muyingo said, adding that the government will continue supporting schools as long as the resource envelope permits it.
