Literacy levels among Mbale pupils improve

The literacy levels among primary school pupils in Mbale City have started to improve, with those from primary one to three in government-aided schools now able to read, a new assessment has revealed.

The assessment conducted by JENGA Community Development Outreach, a non-governmental organisation, indicates that most Primary Three pupils can read more than 40 words per minute, unlike before when they used to read about 10 words per minute.

Ms Rhonda Smith, the project manager of Fun of Phonics, which is an early literacy programme being  implemented in all government schools in the city for the past three years, said the findings indicate that pupils are on their way to becoming fluent readers, something she said will change performance in national examinations.

“Often children in most of the Uganda schools drop out of education early because they struggle to read and write but we want to change that,” Ms Smith said.

She said a phonic based approach to teaching was adopted for Ugandan classrooms because it doesn’t need a lot of resources and also caters for a big class.

Phonics is a method of teaching pupils to read by correlating sounds with symbols in an alphabetic writing system.

“We have since trained all teachers in the government aided schools for P1 to P3 because as infant teachers, they are responsible for building a strong foundation,” she said, adding that the project will extend the programme to private schools starting next year.

She made the remarks during the ceremony to award certificates to about 250 pupils who had been trained in phonics teaching at North Road Primary School in Mbale City at the weekend.

 Ms Linus Nasimiyu, the acting principal education officer for Mbale City, said the collaborative efforts will help improve academic performance in schools in the city.

“These actions from our development partners will shape our academic performance because early quality learning is key,” she said.

Most of the primary schools in the rural sub-counties of the city registered a higher failure rate in the Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) results for 2022.

More than a third of schools failed to get a candidate with Division One, which ranges from 4 to 12 points according to the grading system by Uneb. The city has 59 government-aided primary schools.

The local leaders have always attributed the poor performance in government schools to underfunding, overwhelming teacher-pupil ratio and also automatic promotion policy.

“The schools found in upper hill areas of the city need affirmative action by the council, especially in terms of recruitment of teachers, who hail from the same areas, to avoid absenteeism,” Mr Joseph Wanambwa, a resident of Mbale City, said.

The headmistress of North Road Primary School, Ms Juliet Wokoli, said the initiative has also given the pupils in the beneficiary classes confidence in the English language.

“We ask our partners to extend this programME to other schools that are yet to benefit. It has improved learning,” she said.

Mr Micheal Wangwe, a former head teacher of North Road Primary School, said passing exams becomes difficult if the pupil is not able to read and write.

“If we build a home with a weak foundation, then the whole structure is weak, so if we want a strong education foundation, infant classes must be strengthened,” he said.

The executive director of JENGA, Mr Robert Keen, said the future of the children is in the hands of teachers.

“If the teachers are well trained and equipped, we will get good children academically and spiritually,” he said.