Prime
Three upcountry schools remain top for 5 years
Grayce Pearson Kiyingi celebrates with his grandmother. He scored Aggregate 7.
What you need to know:
- However, statistics indicate that for the last four years, Lwengo-based Kisosso Primary School has had all its candidates come in Division One.
Three upcountry primary schools have been appearing among the top five ranked performer in Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) countrywide for the last five years.
They are Uganda Martyrs Katwe Primary School, (Masaka District), Kisosso Parents Primary School (Lwengo), and Nkokonjeru Primary School in Mbale District. The others, which have appeared twice, are K.Y Day and Boarding P/S (Masaka), and Parental Care Primary School and Pearl Junior School, both in Bushenyi District.
This is contrary to the widely held belief that top ranking schools are those based in the Kampala Metropolitan area. During the release of the PLE results on Friday, the executive secretary of the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb), Mr Dan Odongo, revealed that urban schools outperformed the rural schools because they had better teaching facilities.
“Most of the non UPE candidates are from schools located in urban areas. Studies conducted by Uneb through National Assessment of Progress in Education (NAPE) have consistently shown that learners in schools located in urban areas achieve at higher levels of proficiency than their peers in schools located in rural areas,” Mr Odongo said.
However, statistics indicate that for the last four years, Lwengo-based Kisosso Primary School has had all its candidates come in Division One. In the 2020 results, the school had 99 pupils in Division One. The same was in the results released in 2019, 2018 and 2017 where 100, 88 and 66 pupils were all in Division One, respectively.
The school’s consistent excellent performance, according to the head teacher, Mr Charles Nsereko, is premised on a string of conditions ranging from sourcing competent teachers to credible support staff.
Secrets to success
“As the head of the school it is important to source and recruit competent teachers and other workers in the school,” Mr Nsereko, who is also the school director, said in a telephone interview at the weekend.
“You may admire and also manage to hire some good person and you fail to satisfy him. So after identifying people, you must have good welfare for them. They have to get good money. This includes advancing some money for them each time they want it,” he said.
Mr Nsereko also enlisted good feeding and preparation of quality content for the learners as the other key secrets to their success. Uganda Martyrs Katwe Primary and Nkokonjeru Primary School have for the last five years featured three times in the top five primary schools in the country.
Uganda Martyrs Katwe Primary School was in 2017 and 2018 positioned as the best performing school in the country, while in 2019, it was ranked in second place.
Mbale’s Nkokonjeru Primary School has topped the latest results with all of its 104 candidates coming in Division One. Nkokonjeru came second and third in the results released in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
