Prime
Over 1 million learners fail to sit PLE every year
Pupils of Owere Primary School travel on River Kacwinya in Pakwach District using boats on June 24, 2024. PHOTO | PATRICK OKABA
What you need to know:
- Of the 7.6 million learners, only 3.1 million completed the seven-year primary cycle in four years.
More than 3,100 pupils who are admitted to different primary schools across the country drop out daily, according to Monitor analysis of the enrolment statistics and the Primary Seven completion rate.
Data from the Ministry of Education and Sports shows that 7.6 million learners were enrolled in Primary One in a four-year enrolment cycle.
However, Monitor analysis of the annual Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) results for 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2014 puts the completion rate at 40.7 per cent. The 2015 entrants did not complete the cycle.
Uneb spokesperson Jennifer Kalule explained yesterday that no examination was held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 lockdown, pushing the completion cycle to 2022.
Of the 7.6 million learners, only 3.1 million completed the seven-year primary cycle in the period under review. This implies that 4.5 million learners either died,relocated to other countries or dropped out of school before sitting for their PLE exams.
The Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) statistics covering the period under review show that 56,449 Primary Seven candidates registered for the exams but did not show up.
On average, Monitor analysis shows that 21,894 pupils drop out weekly, 94,874 monthly, and 1.13 million every year. Government and private sector players unanimously agree that school dropout is a serious issue that must be addressed immediately.
In 1997, the government introduced Universal Primary Education (UPE) to increase children’s access to education, especially from poor families.
In the initial years of the programme, UPE increased enrolment numbers by fourfold. However, according to Opposition leaders, the programme has now turned into “a laughing stock” on account of inadequate funding, which in some cases does not even come on time, congestion, poor services, inadequate infrastructure, feeding challenges, and poor teacher quality. School drop-out remains a thorn in the implementation of the UPE programme.
While releasing the 2024 PLE results at Nakasero State Lodge on Thursday last week, Education Minister Janet Kataha Museveni said the issue of school dropouts must be everyone’s concern, especially the school authorities.
She said any school dropout is an undesirable state, and the government needs to address issues to eliminate school dropouts.
“I want to call upon head teachers and School Management Committees to pay attention to the problem of learner dropout, especially those who have registered for PLE. We must look into this issue and understand why a learner who has registered to sit PLE, does not show up to sit the exams,” Ms Museveni said.
Former candidates of Apuuton Primary School celebrate their results with their teachers at the weekend. PHOTO/SIMON PETER EMWAMU
In the years under review, the rate of dropouts has stagnated at one million. For instance, 1.8m learners were enrolled in 2018 but 1.05m dropped out. Relatedly, in 2023, only 730,000 learners out of 1.9m pupils who were enrolled in primary one in 2017 sat for their PLE.
The 2016 Primary One classes across the country had 1.8 million pupils but only 810,000 sat for their PLE in 2022, and the situation does not differ in other years.
Speaking ab out the crisis of absenteeism and school dropout, especially in UPE schools, Ms Museveni painted a bullish picture of what’s happening in the country and tasked authorities in her ministry with ending school dropout, one of the complex challenges in the education sector.
“It is good to note that our Universal Education Policy has enabled more children to attend school, as seen from the significant increase in candidature and the decrease in dropout or absenteeism that is now at only 1.3 percent,” Ms Museveni said.
“So, I am pleased that during yesterday’s (Wednesday last week) briefing meeting on the release of these results, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Sports committed to comprehensively look into the list of the local governments and schools,from which the 1.3 percent dropout occurred,” she added.
Speaking to Monitor last evening, Mr Hasadu Kirabira, the chairperson of the National Private Education Institutions Association (NPEIA), explained that the issue of school dropouts must be treated as an emergency by the government because it is draining many children’s future.
“Previously we could see the education secretaries in the village leadership vigilantly conducting operations on children, which is not the case now. Poverty is also another big factor that has forced many parents to abandon paying school fees for their children ending up into dropouts,” Mr Kirabira said.
He added: “It is time for us school heads and owners to sit with the government including the Ministry of Education, Uneb and parents so that we come up with a lasting solution for this undermined but big problem. This problem cuts across because every child who fails to turn up, at least one of the three stakeholders ab ove is involved.”
The government last year promised to launch Universal and Compulsory Education where they would encourage every child of school-going age to access education.
Government efforts
The State Minister of Education, Ms Moriku Kaducu , told Monitor yesterday that the government has put in place several interventions such as the school feeding programme to keep the learners in school.
She revealed that the government started with the Karamoja Sub-region where the dropout rate is higher compared to other regions.
“We work with the World Food Programme to give hot meals to the majority of schools in Karamoja so the children can concentrate and perform better. But we need collective stakeholders including the parents,” the minister said.
Like Kirabira, Ms Kaducu echoed the government strategy to end early school dropouts, early marriages and child labour should be a collective effort with all stakeholders, including parents on board.
One of the major problems of dropouts, according to experts, is the skyrocketing fee structures in privately owned schools which scare away some parents, citing the need for the government to make its Universal Primary Education accessible to the poor.
President Museveni has on several occasions condemned the charging of fees in government schools, calling it a major cause of school dropouts.
Pupils attend classes under a tree
While commissioning the Teso Zonal Presidential Industrial Hub in Soroti City in November last year, Mr Museveni reiterated that Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) programs were designed to be free.
“The NRM government created UPE and USE to ensure free education, but some head teachers bring back charges, forcing children out of school,” Mr Museveni said as he warned that a new law in offing would end all this circus.
He reiterated his message while meeting the youths in Mbale in December last year and said: “You the youths, you need to insist and say stop school charges in government schools. Wake up everybody that let us implement UPE and USE."
