More than 9,000 drop out after registering for PLE

Learners. Pupils of Kayanja Primary School in Buhweju District school line up for water. PHOTO BY FELIX AINEBYOONA

What you need to know:

  • Worrying. Information obtained from Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) website indicate that out of 333,482 pupils who registered for PLE from 2010 to 2016, a total of 9,320 did not sit.

Mbarara.

More than 9,000 pupils did not sit Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) despite registering as candidates over the last seven years in the districts of Ntungamo, Mbarara, Kiruhura, Bushenyi, Isingiro, Mitooma, Sheema, Buhweju, Ibanda and Rubirizi.
Information obtained from Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) website indicate that out of 333,482 pupils who registered for PLE from 2010 to 2016, a total of 9,320 did not sit.
Ntungamo has the biggest number at 1743 followed by Isingiro with 1537. Mbarara and Ibanda have the same number at 1114. Kiruhura has 927, Bushenyi 779, Sheema 707, Mitooma 638, Rubirizi 451 and Buhweju 310.

Enrolment
Primary school enrolment in the country tends to be higher in lower classes (from Primary One to Primary Four) but it gradually reduces as pupils go to Primary Five, Six and Seven.
Districts authorities attribute the high dropout rate on parents who force their children to tend to animals during school time.
According to UBOS statistical abstract 2016, there were 1,266,117 pupils in Primary Three in the entire country in 2011. The enrolment in Primary Four in 2012 was 1,299,994. The number in Primary Five in 2013 was 1,138,789 pupils; those who were in Primary Six in 2014 were 963,083 and the nationwide enrolment in Primary Seven was 584,984 in 2015.
UBOS quotes the Education ministry as the source of this data. Education officials and political leaders in Ankole sub-region say government and parents need to do more on keeping pupils in school.
Ntungamo District Inspector of Schools Fred Bahati suggests that those parents whose children drop out should be penalised. He adds: “Government should have a law that forces parents to pay back all the money it has spent on their children after they have dropped out because they are largely responsible for their pulling out.”

Grazing livestock
Grazing livestock, Mr Bahiti says, is one of the major reasons for the high school dropout in Ntungamo and Isingiro. The other reason keeping children out of school, he said, is trading and mining.
He, however, says they have engaged parish chiefs, sub-county chiefs and chairpersons of school management committees to arrest children who abscond.
“For example in Rugarama sub-county, authorities move in the markets rounding up all the school-going children in the market and take them to police. When a parent comes to see his child, he is arrested and the child is released,” says Mr Bahati.
The Ntungamo District education officer, Mr Odo Arigye, attributes school dropout to underage marriages, petty trade, child labour and poor attitude towards education by parents.
“People in Ntungamo still have a bad attitude towards education and as a result their children drop out of school,’’ says Mr Arigye.
Bushenyi District education officer Saul Rwantoro attributes the high dropout to poverty, and death of parents that result into lack of child support. “Some girls get married; in Kyamuhunga boys and girls leave school to go and pick tea while others go for stone quarrying in Bitoma,’’ says Mr Rwantoro.
Mr Jordan Musinguzi, the Mbarara District council secretary for education, says early marriages, poverty and teachers’ laxity are responsible for high dropout. “In Mbarara’s case you find that half of that number that never sat PLE, less than 200 are boys. Majority are girls; they get married, others are defiled and get stigmatised and some get impregnated,” says Mr Musinguzi.
He adds: “Parents are poor. Government pays fees but uniform, books, soap and other needs have to be provided by a parent. Because parents are getting poorer they fail and abandon the children. Parents don’t give children food. In most of the schools we have visited you find that out of 600 pupils almost half of them don’t have lunch. You find them dozing in class and sleeping in compound in the afternoon.”
He adds that some teachers go to school at 11 am and others are drunkards. “When parents see a teacher going to school at such time, others drunk; they get discouraged and stop sending children to school because they know it is wast of time,” he says.