PLE results: Let us not ridicule poor performers

Last week, the Uganda National Examinations Board executive director, Mr Daniel Odongo, revealed that the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) will be released this week.

This announcement comes with excitement and also an ample serving of anxiety for parents, guardians and the learners.  

All the hours of study, private coaching, early mornings and late nights will now be weighed according to the results that will be announced this week if all goes according to plan.

And as is the norm, excelling learners will be hailed, congratulated in the media and on every forum that their parents or teachers can show them off on and the poor performers, well, will be chided, forgotten and ridiculed, among others.

The list of unfortunate responses to poor performance is long. It seems that we need to be reminded that in life, there are winners and losers. That you win some and lose some. As we celebrate the winners, let us not be blind to the pain and frustration of those who will not make the mark.

In 2021, a 15-year-old girl who sat her Primary Leaving Examinations at Bwikya Muslim Primary School in Hoima City allegedly committed suicide after she reportedly performed poorly. Daphine Kimuli, who scored Aggregate 25, was found hanging on a jackfruit tree near her home in Bwikya ward in Hoima East division. In a suicide note, Daphine, among other things, claimed that there were people laughing at her for performing poorly.  “Hoima pupil commits suicide over poor PLE results.” Daily Monitor, July 21, 2021.

Therefore, as we prepare to receive the results, please be mindful of the learners who will not perform to expected standards. As you express disappointment, be sensitive about it.  A poor performance at primary level is hardly the end of the road, although, as it was in Daphne’s case, it could turn out to be if carelessly handled.

In our story of January 10, 2023 titled, “Why suicide cases are rising among learners”,  Dr Julie Kasamba, a professor at Kyambogo University, emphasises the need for parents  to be present in the lives of their children to ensure that they are brought up in a loving, patient, and trustworthy manner which makes them easily receptive, adjustable and listening towards them.

Well here’s an opportunity to put Dr Kasamba’s advice to the test. Be sensitive and patient with learners who will not be counted among the numbers of excelling PLE students.

To those whose results will bring joy, congratulations and to those whom excellence will elude, take heart, it’s only the beginning. May the next season of your life be heavily ladened with more opportunity to do better.