The inscription is on the wall: the poorer you are, the poorer your child is likely to perform in national examinations. This is basically the message that the 2016 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results, released yesterday, depict.
First, all but one of the worst 10 districts are in eastern Uganda. Seven of them in particular are in Busoga sub-region: Buyende, Luuka, Mayuge, Kaliro, Iganga Main, Bulambuli, and Namutumba.
Two of the districts – Serere and Kween – are from the eastern region. Kyankwanzi was the only district in central region among the 10 worst performers. And an analysis by The Observer of the performance of the 10 worst districts in the last five years found they have hardly improved over that time.
Buyende, for instance, which was the worst district in the country – and one of the poorest– has appeared on the list of the 10 worst-performing districts every year for the last five years.
This is the same for Luuka, Kween, and Namutumba. And there is a familiar trait – these districts come from one of the poorest parts of the country. Eastern Uganda, together with northern Uganda, have consistently been ranked as the poorest regions by various studies.
This year, however, northern Uganda went against the tide, with a slight improvement – although still trailing central and western Uganda. Education minister Janet Museveni said the improvement in performance was spurred by local leaders who kept a keen eye on schools in northern Uganda.
Still, pupils from the two regions remain vulnerable because they lack basic necessities to go through school. A pupil needs scholastic materials, lunch, and sanitary pads for girls to be comfortable at school and perform well. Parents in these areas are just too poor to afford any of these things.
Indeed, a December 2016 overview of the country by the World Bank says: “Despite progress, poverty and vulnerability remain in the Northern and Eastern regions, which account for 84 per cent of those living beneath the national poverty line. For every three Ugandans who get out of poverty, two fall back in, demonstrating the fragile gains in the country’s poverty success.”
Ms Museveni told reporters that she would be going to Busoga to find out why the region keeps on posting poor results every year. She, however, warned UPE and USE schools against charging fees whether for lunch or other purposes.
The vulnerability is also reflected in the disparities in performance between urban and rural pupils. The top ten performers by numbers were all municipalities: Fort Portal, Entebbe, Ntungamo, Rukungiri, Jinja, Kabale, Masaka, Mbarara, Lira, and Masindi. This emphasizes the fact that better-off parents are likely to take their pupils in town-based schools, for they have the resources to perform.
The disparities are also glaring when you look at schools with the highest number of first grades. For instance, the top ten schools with the highest first grade numbers come from the top four most prosperous districts – Mbarara, Kampala, Wakiso and Masaka. And these also turn out to be the most expensive schools.
Selection of students to join secondary schools will be done on January 24-25 at UMA show grounds.
PLE STARS
Mbarara Municipal School got the highest number of first grades in the country, beating giants in Kampala and Wakiso. It got at least 319 first grades. It was followed by City Parents (258), Hillside (245), Kampala Parents (200) and Leo’s Junior, Masaka (189).
Greenhill Academy led the pack of schools with the highest number of pupils with aggregate aggregates 4. At least 17 of her candidates got 4 compared to three, last year. It was followed by Mother Manjeri with 15, Good Times Kawaala (13); Cornerstone Junior School and Hillside (11).
On the whole, though, 2016 pupils performed better than those of the preceding year. For instance, at least 438 schools had candidates scoring 4s compared to only 414 schools in 2015. In at least 1,120 schools, candidates got aggregates 5 compared to 823 in 2015.
According to the Uneb executive secretary, Dan Odongo, 87 per cent of candidates passed this year compared to 86.2 per cent last year.
Ms Museveni added: “The exams reveal a number of disparities that we should effectively study and address.”
She said in particular, the pupils’ performance had been influenced by the “urban and rural divide.”
“I think we need to study it in order for us [to determine] where this originates from,” she added.
Odongo said: “This is where schools tend to be better resourced and parental involvement more pronounced.”
Mayuge and Mityana had the highest candidates that skipped writing their final exams at 463 and 309 respectively. Other districts with high absenteeism rates were Sembabule, Kyankwanzi, Gomba and Bukomansimbi.
GOVERNMENT vs PRIVATE
One of the most watched trends is how pupils in government- aided schools (UPE) perform vis-à-vis those in private schools. The trend, however, is predictable, with the latter perennially performing better than public schools.
At least 25.7 per cent (38,413 candidates) scored division one in non-UPE schools compared to 5.3 per cent (24,986) in UPE schools. Meanwhile, at least 15.6 per cent (73,703pupils) in UPE schools failed while just 5.0 per cent in non-UPE schools (7,507) failed.
Uneb explained that the number of candidates from non-UPE schools was lower – at just 24 per cent of the total candidates. Non-UPE schools are better resourced and parents are more able to spend more resources to facilitate their children’s learning. Ms Museveni said parents with children in UPE schools had the responsibility to make sure they perform.
“The quality of education is not what we want but parents should stop thinking that the children belong to government. They must also do their part like giving children lunch,” Ms Museveni said.
English and Social Studies were the best done subjects, just like last year.
MORE GIRLS
In 2016, there were more girls sitting for PLE compared to boys, a first but also an indicator that government could be winning the war on girl-child dropouts before they finish their primary school cycle.
At least 329,190 girls (51.3 per cent) registered to write final exams compared to 311,777 boys (48.7 per cent). But the bigger number of girls did not translate into better performance. They still trailed boys. Only 5.3 per cent of boys scored grade U or failed compared to 7.7 per cent for girls.
RESULTS WITHHELD
Although Uneb said the 2016 exams didn’t leak, some pupils got external assistance. This led to the withholding of exams for at least 46 schools, affecting about 1,886 candidates, the highest number seen in the last six years – since 2010. Last year, only 909 candidates’results were withheld.
Kabarole had the highest number of schools (nine) with withheld results, with at least 514 pupils affected. It was followed by Bushenyi (5) and Wakiso (4).
editor@observer.ug