How PLE stars performed in UCE

KAMPALA.

Only a dozen of the 325 pupils who obtained Aggregate 4 in Primary Leaving Examinations in 2012 were among the best 2016 Ordinary Level students, according to our analysis of the Uganda Certificate of Education results released on Tuesday.

Aggregate 4 means these candidates four years ago each got distinction ones in all four examinable primary-level subjects.

Twelve of them replicated similar feats in Senior Four, getting only distinction ones in their best done eight subjects, and 19 others also got distinction ones in seven subjects with distinction twos in one of the eight subjects.

However, majority in that cohort were not as lucky, packing in the mid-Division One.

Fourteen students slid to Division Two, with the worst --- Juliet Letasi Pario, who took the exams at Muni Girls’ SS in Arua District --- obtaining Aggregate 43.

These disparities besides taking the shine off the students’ previous stellar feats bring to the fore the question of whether such scores at one academic level can ensure future exceptional performance or even be a useful measure of an individual’s brilliance.

We were unable to speak to Ms Pario on what could, for instance, have affected her performance leading to her coursing to the 35th position out of Muni Girls’ 128 UCE candidates.

Ms Grace Draru, the head teacher, said institutional and structural hamstrings fated the student who in 2013 joined Senior One as their best. “We do not have enough laboratory equipment; therefore, it is hard for a student to perform well especially in the sciences,” she said.

Uneb examiners have repeatedly flagged that up-country candidates for the first time undertake science subjects’ practicals during mock and, afterward, the national examinations.

Ms Pario’s best-done O-level subject, it turns out, was Agricultural Principles and Practices in which she obtained Credit 4, and Pass Seven scores in Chemistry, Biology and Physics.

She is not alone. Like her, Leon Kazini in 2012 got Aggregate 4. In last year’s results released this week, Mr Kazini, who studied at King’s College Budo, obtained Aggregate 28, spinning his childhood dream of becoming a doctor into balance.

“Things happen,” Mr Wilfred Kazini, the father said, opting to speak on his son’s behalf. “Maybe the school relaxed and did not give much attention to him.”

Budo’s Director of Studies Godfrey Atwine said “personal effort matters a lot. You can admit a PLE student with Aggregate 4, but the performance declines and that of [the one who obtained] Aggregate 8 improves”.

In the absence of a tailored research, which the Education ministry spokesman, Mr Patrick Muinda, yesterday said counter-accusations among stakeholders over less-than-satisfactory results that pale a student’s previous one are expected.

Bureaucrats have, among other reasons, highlighted quality of teaching at choice post-primary schools, changed family or personal circumstances, peer influence and or manifestation of reality for candidates cheated their way to triumph.

Uganda’s media offer extensive coverage of national examinations results, giving uncritical publicity to the top students.

Perspective
While releasing the results in Kampala on Tuesday, Education minister Janet Museveni faulted the Fourth Estate for misleading the public by not examining the value a particular institution adds to a student’s holistic development.

“Part of the problem,” she said, “could be ranking done by the media which tends to focus on the number of First Grades irrespective of the quality obtained by the school. It does not take into account other contextual factors.”

Already, Uneb is considering revising its ranking criteria, its board chairperson Prof Mary Okwakol said, to prioritise the “effectiveness measure or the value-added measure as a way of reporting schools’ performance”.

The need for a shift in the manner of classifying students’ performances has dominated public discourse for a while, but it gained currency after the government’s Education Standards Directorate in partnership with the UK-based Ark International failed to feature traditionally high-flying schools in the top bracket following a survey last year.

Majority excellent Ugandan schools almost exclusively in the first place admit the best students, making it difficult to judge institution-specific input to a learner’s progress.

For instance, only eight of the country’s top schools snapped up almost seven in every 10 of the 325 students who obtained Aggregate 4 in the 2012 PLE.

These later all passed in Division One in last year’s UCE exams, although not exclusively with distinctions like they did in primary.

The eight schools were Mt St Mary’s Namagunga, King’s College, Budo, St Mary’s College Kisubi, Gayaza High School, Namilyango College, Ntare School, London College of St Lawrence, and, Uganda Martyrs SS, Namugongo.

Jonathan Mutumba, a 2012 PLE star who enrolled at Namagabi SS with Aggregate 4, obtained Aggregate 8 for eight best done subjects because, he says, “I took my studies serious. I was reading, discussed with my friends but also consulted my teachers”. His dream is to become a “medical doctor and make money”.

“He has always been serious with studies, but it is a combination of good teachers and his seriousness that made him perform,” said Mr Besweri Lubinge, the school’s director of studies.