Recently, the education ministry condemned teachers and schools in general that allow for students to study for examinations, rather than actually studying.
In her speech, the education minister, Janet Museveni, condemned as lacking in ethics, teachers who made it their business to spot, which topics were due for examination, rather than teaching the entire syllabus.
She was also disappointed at the rather absurd situation of teachers making students cram various texts of material for use as answers in examinations. She tasked school inspectors to work to rule out the problem.
As explained by the Uganda National Examinations Board executive secretary, Dan Nokrach Odongo, these hapless students are regularly made to cram large texts for use in exams.
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For instance, in an English examination paper, students were asked to prepare a letter to a member of parliament, regarding what a hypothetical local council I chairman would say about a firm that was dumping waste in their area.
Many students, who had been expecting the examiner to ask about minutes of a meeting, did not read the question to the end and simply reproduced the crammed material, resulting in failure.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time the matter has been raised in a public forum. For instance, in her time as education minister, Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire once condemned the issue, while releasing examination results in 2010. She vowed to make sure the vice was eradicated.
The matter cropped up severally under Bitamazire’s successor, Jessica Alupo. In one instance in 2012, she threatened to take stern action against teachers involved in promoting cramwork, spotting and the use of pamphlets. She never spelt out what stern action was in store for the errant teachers.
Ms Museveni has also not spelt out any prescribed punishment for the errant teachers. Therefore, it is unlikely that the vice will go away. So, it is now up to learners and their parents to determine when to stop following the bad advice from their teachers.  Â
school@observer.ug