Over 24,000 schools yet to register learners on portal

More than 24,000 primary and secondary schools across the country have until Friday to register their learners on the Education Management Information System (EMIS) portal or risk losing their licences, the Monitor has learnt.

The registration exercise started in June.

A source at the Education ministry told the Monitor that at least 2,000 secondary schools have yet to register their learners while the Ministry of Education last week listed a total of 22,984 primary schools which did not have EMIS accounts.

Failure to meet the deadline will result in private schools losing their licences, while government-aided ones will have their capitation grant withheld until they register.

“The ministry is expected to release the list of secondary schools which have not yet registered their learners before Friday,” a source said.

The data collected by schools is supposed to serve as the baseline information for learner verification and issuance of National Identification Numbers (NINs) by National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira).

Under the new lower secondary curriculum, head teachers will use the NINs to transmit learner’s school-based assessment scores to Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb). Schools are supposed to transmit the 20 percent assessment marks of their learners to Uneb, which will be part of their final score at the end of O-Level.

Private schools, which are on the verge of losing their licences, have asked the ministry to extend the deadline, saying all teachers and support staff supposed to upload the data broke off for holidays, amid other challenges.

The chairperson of the National Private Education Institutions (NPEI), Mr Hasadu Kirabira, yesterday said the majority of schools have not completed the exercise, adding that if the licences are revoked, it will affect the whole country.

 “Most schools are finding a challenge of using the system because the majority are ICT illiterate. Others have failed to activate their dormant EMIS accounts because they lost their passwords, making it hard for them to upload the data,” Mr Kirabira said.

 He added: “In the spirit of moving forward, ultimatums will not work. Let the ministry postpone this exercise, sensitise schools, especially those in rural areas so that they are also brought on board.”

The registration exercise, which kicked off in June, has seen the Ministry of Education extend the deadline three times.

Wakiso District tops the list of schools without EMIS, with 2,756 schools followed by Kampala (1,090), Mukono (831), Luwero (585), Kasese (462), Isingiro (415), and Gomba 256, among others.

Registration

The State minister for Primary Education, Ms Joyce Kaducu, said the ministry may excuse primary schools.

“We first want to put all our energy into secondary schools because schools are going to use the system to transfer the results of their learners to Uganda National Examination Board so if they are not registered on EMIS, they will not have the marks,” Ms Kaducu said.

“Schools should use the remaining days to beat the deadline if they do not want to lose their licences. We are very serious about this registration, especially the secondary schools,” she added.

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