Battle for top spot making schools throw out learners

Last week, Gladys Ayikoru, a former student of St Mary’s Ediofe Secondary School in Arua District was awarded Shs10m in general damages after the school barred her from registering for Uneb exams on grounds of poor performance at the beginning of first term in 2016.
Ayikoru, allegedly scored Division 9 in the pre-registration exams hence she was compelled to look for a new school from where she could register for Uneb exams. However, she sued the school for what she called ‘psychological torture’, leading to a landmark judgement.

Ayikoru represents many students across the country who have encountered the same challenge, leaving their parents puzzled.
Despite paying colossal sums of money in school fees, some parents have been disappointed when they are told by school administrators that their children cannot register with them for Uneb exams because of the ‘poor’ grades they post in tests.
And this is being implemented by several schools primary and secondary alike.

Widespread problem
Recently, a disgruntled parent took to one of the Facebook groups asking for advice after one of the city primary schools advised that she registers her daughter with a rural school since they are looking at 100 per cent first grades.
“…this is a girl who has been in their care since Primary Four and when she was promoted last year, she passed with Aggregate 10. I asked the head teacher why they did not advise us before the beginning of term, or why did not they wait for Mock exams or why did they have to wait for us to first complete their school fees to tell us that?” the mother’s post read in part.

According to Article 30 of the Constitution, all persons have a right to education and denying a learner an opportunity to register for their final examination thus becomes a violation of their right to education.
Elizabeth Nabunya, a parent at one of the city schools too says she has resolved to sue the school for denying her daughter the opportunity to register for PLE just because she did not score first grade in promotional exams. “She has been at this school since Primary One and we do not owe the school any money. However, what hurts me is that they want her out after joining Primary Seven because they think she cannot score a first grade. How come they have been with her for the last six years?” she asks.

Although the school has offered to help her to look for another school within the city where her daughter can register, Nabunya insists she must register at their school or they compensate her money.

Psychological effects
Such decisions by schools, Nabunya argues, affect parents both psychologically and financially. “My child could even perform more poorly at the new school because of effects of a new environment,’ she says.
For instance, Ayikoru in her testimony at court, stated that: “As a result of this treatment at the hands of the defendant (the school), I felt psychologically tortured because the whole school considered me dull. I had to make hasty adjustments and even dropped one of the subjects within few months.”

Mathew Nahabwe, a secondary school teacher, says most schools are being bullied into the practice because of the soaring competition where all schools battle to be ranked the best. As such, Nahabwe says, schools will eliminate learners whom they feel will make them miss the best ranking.

Wrong assessment method
But Patrick Kaboyo, the secretary of the Federation of Non-state Education Institutions (Fenei), says such acts are discriminative and should be condemned.
He blames this on the wrong assessment used by teachers who only focus on the cognitive domain-brain and memory instead of building the learner holistically. “Parents must appeal such decisions if at all them feel dissatisfied. If schools discriminating against learners are punished, they would cease the act,” he says.

Tonny Lusambu, a commissioner of primary education at the Ministry of education said the ministry would work with Uneb to crack the whip on schools that are discriminating learners on the basis of academic performance.
“Teachers are required to teach learners not to send them away in case they fail to score better grades,” he says.