PLE: New kids on the block

This year list of schools that topped PLE held several new entrants. These rarely heard of schools edged out traditional schools. How did it happen and who are these schools? Here is the story of some of the newer entrants into the top league.

Lypa Primary School (Mbarara)
Found deep in Ntungamo village in Kashare Sub County, 40 kilometres from Mbarara town on Mbarara-Ibanda road, Lypa stunned the nation by coming in third in the country in PLE with 100 per cent pass in first division.

“Our performance has been very good since 2007. This is the second time all our candidates are passing in division one. But this year we have registered the highest number of pupils with aggregate 4,” says Mr Tumwine.

Tumwine says the teachers he uses are grade three certificate holders but who are young, committed and without many responsibilities to distract them.

“Out of 26 teaching staff I have only one who is a graduate secondary school teacher. He works as the headmaster, the rest came when they are certificate holders. Some are just upgrading. We don’t hire teachers, we improve ours,” he says. He hires good and experienced teachers from Kampala schools and consultants to come train the teachers at Lypa, a thing he feels has paid off.

Last year he brought a science teacher from Kampala. He trained them in March and was brought back in July to do evaluation.

“You can’t believe the results! In 2010 we had 11 Distinction Ones in science, in 2011 we had 9 Distinction Ones in Science and in 2012 because I brought this teacher to train we have got 42 Distinction One’s in science,” Tumwine says proudly.

Teachers are paid between Shs200,000 and Shs500,000 every month depending on grade, experience and competence. They also have meals and accommodation within the school. Tumwine started Lypa Primary School in 2003. His wife Lydia who ran the school until 2009 when Tumwine retired is a qualified primary school teacher.

He names the school after the first parts of his two children’s names Lynn and Patson.

Pearl Junior School (Bushenyi)
Over the years, traditional schools like Bweranyangi Boarding Primary, Kyeitembe Model, Nganwa Junior, Kashozi Boarding and St. Kagwa put Bushenyi among the best performing districts in National Examinations. Pearl Junior School located in Bushenyi/Ishaka Municipality did one over the traditional giants ranking ninth nationwide in the 2012 PLE. For the second time all its candidates have passed in first grade. Four of the 58 pupils who got first grade had aggregate 4.

The school started in 2007 and sat its first PLE candidates in 2008. 14 passed in first grade and four in second grade. Ms Allen Atwine, the deputy head teacher says that the news of their performance was received with excitement.

“We were excited and pleased to have this performance. Even in 2011, we had all our pupils coming in division one. This shows our hard work, it is not an easy task. Of course we cannot say that we expected this excellent result but maintaining it is our joy,” Ms Atwine says.

She however declined to comment on the fees structure but said that their fees are friendly.

“Our pupils are given the best foundation for excellence in academic, co-curricular and spiritual up righteousness,” she says.

Silver Spoon School (Kampala)
It is a stone throw away from one of the better known schools Greenhill, yet when it came to PLE results by percentages, the two schools couldn’t have been further apart. Silver Spoon with a 100 per cent first grade score placed 14th while Greenhill came in at 136th position.

Silver spoon is a day primary school that was started in 1997 and sat its first PLE class in 2001. 73 per cent of that first class scored within the first grade. Over the years the school has fluctuated between 64 per cent to 84 per cent except 2005 when the performance dipped to 53 per cent in the first grades.

“Last year we had 92.5 per cent and were among the best in Makindye division,” says the headmaster Vincent Omedo. Still, he is happy for this year’s were the school’s best results yet.

He attributes the success to the child centred teaching approach and the school culture. We open school early and close late but we ensure that the students and teachers are comfortable,” he says.

Having been a former chief examiner and author of several primary school books as a headmaster may be a plus for the school, but Mr Omedo thinks the contribution from the staff side is by the teachers. “I cannot say we pay them that much but they are more than dedicated,” he notes.

We have laid the ground work so we are not worried about maintaining the standard come next year,” says Mr Omedo.

The school has 770 students. “But we are expecting 1,000 at the start of the school term. That is our capacity for now,” says Okoboi.

Good Daddy Parents School (Wakiso)
You could miss this school located by the road side in Kireka if you are looking for impressive structures. But the basic structures notwithstanding, Good Daddy was among the top 20 primary schools in the country this year with all the 35 PLE candidates scoring within the first division. It was also one of the few Kampala schools to make the top of the list that was dominated by up-country schools.

“It is no accident. We were among the best in Wakiso district last year,” says the director Mr Livingstone Kalyowa. He started Good Daddy in 1988 as a nursery school with only four teachers.

The Director of Studies Richard Mwanje welcomes me to his tiny office and takes me through the schools gradual improvement from only 38 per cent of total students scoring in the first grade in 1995 when the first candidates sat, to scoring mostly 80 per cent and 90 per cent in recent years.

“We have been yearning for 100 per cent for a long time. I think the excellent performance has to do with the foundation we lay here. Most of the candidates have been with us since baby class,” says Mwanje.

He also says the school has a stringent process for interviewing teachers, who in turn have poured their all into helping students excel.

“Of course we pay them well. Most are degree holders. You cannot keep such a person if you do not meet their needs,” he says.

Mwanje says that besides dedicating the final term of P7 to revision the school does not have any special strategy. The school does not even have early morning prep. “We have an evening prep from 7:30 to 9:30.Lights off is at 10.00pm,” he shares.

According to the teacher who also doubles up as a bursar, Good Daddy is one of the cheaper priced private schools considering it is not playing in the big boys’ league. “Just Shs403,000 for boarding students and Shs233, 000 for day scholars while we are competing with those who pay millions,” he says.

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