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Over 144,000 P7 leavers stranded as S1 selection ends

Teachers and education officials attend the S1 selection at UMA Multi-purpose Hall in Kampala on January 30, 2025. PHOTO/HANDOUT

What you need to know:

  • UNEB reported that the overall PLE performance in 2024 was better than 2023, with a higher pass rate of 91.8 percent compared to 88.0 percent in 2023.

At least 20 percent of the total 722,730 candidates who passed the 2024 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) are stranded since they have not been admitted to any secondary school, authorities have said.

At least 578,184 primary leavers were admitted to more than 2,000 schools, both government and private, during a two-day Senior One (S1) selection exercise in Kampala on Thursday and Friday last week. According to Ministry of Education data, 144,546 potential Senior One students remain unadmitted.

Commenting on the matter, Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) Permanent Secretary Dr Kedrace Turyagenda said government was considering an extension of student selection.

‘’There are some learners whose results were withheld. I just mentioned to the head teachers that the selection at school will be for another two weeks. They should not close receiving students until after two weeks when children report,’’ Dr Turyagenda said.

Dr Turyagenda emphasized that the period will seek to benefit students who didn’t engage in examination malpractice.

‘’We have a window and we are hoping that the whole investigation exercise would have been done so that those children who didn’t cheat and engage in malpractice receive their results and be offered placements in the schools where they put their choice as long as there marks assist them,’’ she explained.

According to Dr Turyagenda, where need be, the remaining learners will be absorbed in schools that may not have directly participated in the selection or even in vocational institutions.

According to the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), 786,981 candidates,of whom 413,122 were female, sat 2024 PLE.

UNEB reported that the overall PLE performance in 2024 was better than 2023, with a higher pass rate of 91.8 percent compared to 88.0 percent in 2023.

Teacher training

Government has announced plans to train head teachers and their deputies on the new competence based curriculum for purposes of better content delivery.

‘’They are the instructional leaders so they need to understand what the curriculum is, how it should be delivered, how learning of children takes place, how assessments should be done and that’s the first team that we are going to start with,’’ Dr Turyagenda remarked.

She said A level teachers will separately be trained on how to deliver or adopt the A level curriculum with a competence based approach.

‘’The biggest part that is going to be done is pedagogy,” Dr Turyagenda observed. .

National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) secondary school department manager Sima Gilbert Gift said the trainings will be both virtual and online.

‘’We are going to start with a virtual training online on Monday for head teachers with physical training to start with eastern and northern regions,’’ Sima said.

“In the new curriculum, we have removed a few things which we consider an overload and kept that we consider relevant to Uganda. We have adjusted the curriculum focus to enable the child to respond to the different situations that we are facing as a country,” Sima disclosed.

Compiled by Maria Jacinta Kannyange, Damalie Mukhaye, David Walugembe, Shabibah Nakirigya and Priscilla Maloba