The scramble to get Senior One admissions ahead of academic year

Many parents have been plunged into the scramble for school admissions weeks before the start of the new academic year.
Although they describe the exercise as long, and arduous, expensive and heavy on paperwork with an extensive application process, they have no option but to endure it since they have realised that relying on the earlier submitted forms is a risk they are not willing to take.
The challenge becomes even more stiff for pupils with less than stellar grades because most established schools prefer to have the best pupils. But even with perfect grades, finding admissions late in the day is tough because many schools are fully occupied months in advance.  
A total of 650,000 students passed the 2020 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), with about 10 per cent in First Grade, making them eligible to progress to the next formal education level. All these will be vying places in a few schools that parents consider to be the best.
Survival for the fittest
According to Ivan Kaijuka, a father whose child has just completed Primary Seven, he was forced to start the application process because he noticed that every other parent was doing the same.
“I was not really bothered about the whole admission thing especially since we do not know when schools will reopen.  I also felt comfortable about the forms we filled before sitting exams but with all this activity going on, it would be irresponsible of me to just sit back and wait,” he says.
Kaijuka says after filling the online form you are required to pay instantly so that they can send you the admission letter which comes with a long list of requirements.  
“I thinks some schools put this option into place just to make the money that comes along with the application and this has nothing to do with the future of our children’s education,” he notes
Sarah Nakiboneka, a parent also says her child filled the required forms and gave choices to schools before she sat her Primary Leaving Examinations but she is scared to sit and wait for the school to inform her about her child’s admission even when the child scored Six Aggregates.
She says her friends informed her that schools are asking for parents to apply online as an expression of interest because they are not sure the national schools selection will take place and the schools will automatically resort to first-come-first-serve basis.
“We are in an absolute dilemma because some parents now have a chance to bribe their way into these schools even if their children did not get the best grades leaving us who do not have so much money to suffer,” says a worried Nakiboneka.
Raymond Mukisa, the Headmaster of Kind Care Junior School in Namayingo says the system has greatly affected the children and parents in rural schools. He says some parents were not even able to receive their children’s results because they do not have phones and due to the lockdown they could not come to school.
He says they have children who obtained first grades in their rural based schools and can qualify to go the best schools in the country but they might not because without the National schools selection they have to be introduced to the online application which is almost impossible for them.
“Most parents in my school are unaware of the online applications going on because they have no access to the internet. Those who are aware of it do not have the fees being required for applications because their incomes have been affected by the lockdown,” he says.  
He says the ministry should intervene on behalf of these pupils who might miss admissions to good schools because of their parents’ financial limitations.  
What schools have adopted
Top schools including King’s College Budo, Gayaza High School, Trinity College Nabbingo, Mbarara High School, Namilyango College, St Mary’s College Namagunga, and Uganda Martyrs Namugongo among others have advertised for Senior One admissions before the national selection and placement process.
“As we wait for the government guidance on the selection and commencement of Senior One in 2021, those interested in joining Uganda Martyrs’ Secondary School Namugongo should follow the following application process ….” a message posted on the school’s website reads in part.
In a Senior One Application Form notice on its website, the management of Mount St Mary’s Namagunga notes that “it is not business as usual” since the President closed schools last month “therefore, compassionate application for S.1 2021 will be done online”.
The head teacher of Gayaza High School, Ms Robinah Kizito, in an earlier interview with Daily Monitor said they created the online link for application after they noticed that parents and guardians were anxious to find placement and because of the pandemic induced lockdown and in the interest of controlling the spread of the virus by maintaining the strict Ministry of Health standard operating procedures.
Mr Constantine Mpuuga Sajjabi, the Headmaster of Namilyago College in a communication to parents said the online application call is specifically for compassionate admissions targeting students that scored Aggregate eight and below and those that gave the college first choice.
“Filling the form is not a guarantee for a vacancy and therefore, applicants are advised to try other alternatives,” Mr. Mpuuga said in a communication to parents.
Patrick Male Bakka, head teacher King’s College Budo, in a communication said that besides learners who get through the selection process, the school also has two other categories of students who are admitted.
“The opened online admission call is targeting two categories: There are people who would like to join the prestigious school but their students didn’t give us the first choice. And students who are recommended because of the status of their families or our long-time benefactors,” says Bakka.
Bakka notes that although the school has set its cut-off point at seven Aggregates, applicants from royal families in different kingdoms and chiefdom and others recommended by benefactors and other highly placed officials are reserved placement regardless of their performance.
The standard procedure
Mukisa says under normal circumstances schools encourage parents together with the children to fill the forms which are mandatory and paid for. These forms offer candidates an opportunity to apply to schools of their choice according to preference. The schools feed this information to Uganda National examinations board through an online portal that replaced the old system of manual forms.
Upon release of results by Uganda National Examinations Board the Ministry of Education organises all head teachers and principals of tertiary institutions in one centre to carry out selection of the candidates they want in their schools.  
For example they can say Mt. St Mary’s College Namagunga has got 3000 pupils who gave them choices and the school states the number of pupils they are able to admit and their cut off points. Thereafter they scrutinise and those that do not meet those requirements are given to the second choice schools and the process continues.
“However, in the last few years, I have noticed a shift in some of the top schools. A number of them no longer follow the Ministry of Education  process, they just set their cut off points and say for example  we are admitting six aggregates and below and work on a first come first serve basis,” he shares.
What the ministry says
While releasing the 2020 PLE results at State House in Entebbe, Education Minister Janet Museveni said government will set the date for Senior One selection after the lockdown has been lifted by government.
Top secondary schools in the country are asking parents and guardians to submit applications online in order to secure Senior One slots for their children.
State Minister of Education John Chrysostom Muyingo, a school proprietor, said parents are free to express interest in any school they wish their children to join.
“We have allowed Ugandans to take their children where they want. [The] government cannot say ‘no’. We only postponed the selection date and reopening date,” he said.
The government is yet to set a date for the national Senior One selection exercise by school heads, usually conducted in Kampala and pronounce itself on re-opening of schools closed in June amid surging Covid-19 infections and deaths.
However the application call, circulated on social media, hard-copy public notices and emails, raise questions about the fate of choices the candidates made before taking final Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).