Uganda Qur’an Schools Association (UQSA) will hold the annual primary leaving examinations next week from August 23 to 27.

UQSA officials have asked school heads to ensure that learners at various Qur’an schools are ready for the exams that are usually set to test knowledge of Islamic teachings and principles.

UQSA chairperson Sheikh Ahmed Yahaya Lukwago revealed that Qur’an students will be briefed on August 21 to 22, and the exams will be on August 23 and 24 at gazetted centres.

“As for those schools without centres, we urge teachers to ensure that they get permission from those schools with centres; we want all candidates not to miss this opportunity,” he said. 

He has also urged parents to cater for their children well and support them to do the coming exams.

“We still have a few days left before the exams, I ask you to continue teaching the children more; you can still give them last [information] that will ensure the children get what you teach them,” Sheikh Lukwago said.

“I appeal to parents to fulfill their responsibilities of protecting and feeding the children properly knowing that they are going to do their last exams.”

Sheikh Lukwago also appealed to Quran teaching schools not to deny other schools access to exams at their centres.

Meanwhile, the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) will next year start training of imams and madarasa teachers, UMSC secretary general Hajji Ramathan Mugalu has said.

Speaking at UMSC offices on August 10, Mugalu said the initiative follows the recent launch of the first-ever National Curriculum for Islamic Education (NCIE) for nursery and primary schools.

“We have been having informal teaching in our schools. Every sheikh would teach in their own way but principally following the Qur’an,” Mugalu said. “Now that we have a structured curriculum; we need to train our staff to ensure that whatever is taught must be embedded in the curriculum.”

He added that the training is aimed at improving the quality of education given to children in madarasas.

The NCIE was launched by the second deputy mufti of Uganda, Sheikh Ali Muhammad Waiswa, on July 19, 2017.

During that launch, the education ministry was represented by Ismail Mulindwa, the commissioner for private schools.

Waiswa noted then that the new curriculum represents years of research, studying, field-testing and evaluation by a UMSC technical team with support from the Uganda Muslim Youth Development Forum (UMYDF).

According to Mugalu, imams and madarasa teachers will be trained at the Islamic Call University College (ICUC) located inside premises of Gaddafi National mosque in Old Kampala.

“For the first batch, we shall have people to sponsor their training while others will pay for themselves,” he said.

He added that a general nursery and primary curriculum across the country will also resolve accusations of radicalization, specifically using the madarasas.

He encouraged imams and madarasa teachers to embrace further training in order to implement skills-based education.

UMSC education department is also in the process of developing the junior high (idadiya) school and high school (thanawiya) curricula. Currently, UMSC has almost 1,400 formal and informal madarasas registered with it in Uganda.

Meanwhile, Mugalu announced that his office has received over 180 scholarships in Uganda, Sudan – International University of Africa, Khartoum – Egypt and Turkey, among other countries for science-based programmes and practicals.

Some of the programmes where the students will be sponsored, are petroleum studies, medicine, engineering and nursing.

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