As secondary school head teachers conclude the selection process of Senior One students today, most schools have maintained the previous year’s (2015) cut-off points.
An analysis of schools sampled by The Observer indicates that Gayaza High School has the highest cut off points. The girls-only school has admitted students that scored up to aggregate five, the same cut-off point as it had in 2015.
It is followed by the likes of Makerere College School, Mbarara High School, Ntare School, Trinity College Nabbingo and Nabisunsa Girls School, all with aggregate six as their cut-off point.
Most government schools under the Universal Secondary Education (USE) also followed suit in maintaining their cut-off points at aggregate 28 for both male and female students. The two-day exercise started yesterday at Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) multi-purpose hall in Nakawa.
According to a circular signed by the ministry of education permanent secretary, Alex Kakooza, admission of students is principally based on order of merit as per the PLE results and the original choices made by P7 candidates.
The acting commissioner for Secondary education at the ministry of Education, Benson Baritazale Kule, explained that the selection process involved head teachers of all government schools and some private institutions already in partnership with the state.
“We are looking forward to a time when all schools will come together to recruit their S1 classes since they are all Ugandan children,” Kule said.
Out of the 162 schools that we sampled, Jinja SS tops the list with the highest number of applications at 4,640. They admitted only 840 students. Gayaza High could only admit 100 students out of the 2,388 applications.
FEES STRUCTURE
By press time, most top Kampala schools could not avail us with their tuition fees as they maintained that the fees structure was still under review. However, for schools that shared their structures, parents intending to take their children to Trinity College Nabbingo will part with Shs 1.3 million, Gayaza High School (Shs 1m) and Makerere College School (1.02m).
These are the only schools on the list with fees of over Shs 1m. Other schools are charging from Shs 300,000 to Shs 900,000 for the boarding section and Shs 150,000 to Shs 500,000 for the day section. USE schools have also tagged some functional fees for day-students but not exceeding Shs 50,000 per term.
The state minister for primary education, Rosemary Sseninde, said students should not be left out. She challenged the head teachers to ensure that all the 541,089 students who passed the recently-released PLE get the opportunity to access all education options available.
According to Kakooza, schools may admit eligible students to replace those who do not turn up, but the process should be done in consultation with the overall chairperson of the admissions committee after a grace period of 14 days from the reporting date.
On school fees, however, Sseninde warned government secondary school heads against denying learners access to schooling on account of lack of fees or admission fees. Sseninde said such head teachers will face various penalties such as deregistration, demotion and dismissal from the teaching service.
“I am aware some schools are in the habit of charging extra fees, for instance, for admission or tuition far above what is sanctioned,” Sseninde said. “All these schools are operating outside the Universal Secondary Education policy.”
With senior one students set to start their first term on February 6, 2017, Seninde also charged school heads to fight rampant teacher absenteeism.
“Starting this year, all head teachers will be required to prepare records of attendance of all teachers and show record of any action taken against culprits,” she declared.
“These reports will also be reflected in the annual reports to the ministry.”
Reporting by Yudaya Nangonzi, Ali Twaha, Moses Talemwa, Christian Basl, Jonathan Kamoga and Abu Baker Mayemba.