The UGANDAN EDUCATION SYSTEM and U.N.E.B. exams

THE AFRICAN CHILD - YES EVER HUNGRY - FOR GOOD FORMAL SCHOOL EDUCATION .WE ARE THE WORLD - SO LETS SUPPORT, FEED, AND EDUCATE THE AFRICAN CHILD 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM and http://www.youtube.com/ABAISIKIBEEGE  

Iam  called TIICA and am Teacher. I have always enjoyed my work of teaching despite the fact that some people think the job is too low. and has little pay, but as far as I know , for me it is satisfying. I have had a chance to work in rural schools and been able to work with students who have not had  achance to be in the good schools of Kampala, Masaka, Jinja etc where they seem to be scoring highly in the S4/UCE exams = http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/Education.asp?id=566 , the S6/UACE exams http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/Education.asp?id=579  and the P7/PLE exams. But one thing I have learnt about the human potential is that  there is a sleeping genius in every child and that there is the possibility to AWAKEN THE SLEEPING GENIUS IN EVERY CHILD. Oh yes every child has the potential to excel if given the encouragement to do so. And as a result of encouraging the students and teachers and the school administrators from rural schools and from towns that are not big like Kla and Jinja, these schools have  made big suprizes and come out with good results at the end of the UNEB Exams.

Why the success? It is due to the hard work among the teachers, administrators and students and the good discipline of the school and of the students. But also there is a major fact  called EXTRA COACHING of the students whether its on weekends or in the holidays. But when the Ministry of Education comes out as a policy condemning the holiday extra coaching -- you find that  for many schools this is the time for extra work and trying to catch up befor the exams.  And now there is talk of the November 07 Kampala-CHOGM meeting  disrupting the P7/PLE, S4/UCE, and especially the S6/UACE UNEB Exams and having them done earlier than the usual time, i.e.  late September  and finish by end of October. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/9/586/563790  this has caused a lot of panic among the stockholders in education and thus making most Headteachers plan for extra holiday coaching for these students to be better prepared and be able to sit for the exams and pass them well. Every school wants to make sure that the students pass and pass well. Unfortunately some teachers involved in this exercise were recently arrested and accussed of  not following the Ministry of Education ban on holiday teaching. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/9/35/564807  

I think every parent http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/9/232/564531  has the right to choose the school for his child, the right to plan for the good education of his child and the right to give the extra coaching to his child if need be. Most POLITICAL Big shots in Kampala are  having their chidren given this extra coaching doing so in order to hav their children get well prepared to enter university on govt sponsorship. But the question is will the children of poor peasants, students in rural schools and those from upcountry town schools, will they get the chance to pass and go to MAKERERE? Some of these poor but bright and clever students  come from poor parents in the rural areas and in the towns and in the city. Poverty affects education: http://www.ugpulse.com/ugandan-community/forums/thread/3639.aspx   There is so much poverty that one wonders how the poor will ever make it to the top of the academic ladder that goes to University. Remember that  8 million people in Uganda are really poor and cannot afford to have even 1 dollar for the survival of the family per day.Some of these students are  from poor parents who are sacrificing their all in order to make sure that their son, daughter passes the exams and gets  a promotion to the next stage of education and perhaps get a Diploma or Degree and get a god job in future. This is the dream of most parents  and so they will invest all into the coaching and passing exams for their children. but haaa, ?? 

The complaint has been that the many of the graduates of Universal Primary Education - UPE  have not yet grasped the skills of numeracy and literacy,, ith the girls beating the boys in literacy skills at the primary school level http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/9/35/563643  . Actually that trend of lack of mastery in both the numeracy and the literacy skills is a trend that is likely to be pushed into the newly introduced Universal Secondary Education - USE. With the introduction of the Free Universal Secondary Education in Uganda since Feb 07,  a great number of students have joined secondary education and in some schools the number of S1 intakes is so big that it has affected the pace and facilitiesa like library and science laboratory that would be used by the S4 and S6 exam classes. http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/news.asp?ID=3277   And so all the more  for the school,administrators to take advantage o the holiday time and space at school and concentrate on the exam classes of S4 and S6. I think that extra room should be given to the schools to do some extra coaching so that they can better polish their students especially since its known that not all schools took the best graduates  in the UNEB exams. So whatever students these teachers and schools have, these are  students of the nation and thus should be given a chance to do better.

I have tried the experiment of the extra coaching and it works and can produce some good results. As the first term holidays are about to end and the 2nd term studies begin Monday May 21st, many Headteachers are looking forward to early participation in the MOCK EXAMS and  into the early sitting for the Uganda National examinations Board UNEB Exams before the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting - CHOGM takes place in Nov 07, thus inturrupting the whole Exam ecercise. And for this year, we can almost be sure that schools are planning that extra coaching and some have done so already in the 1st term holidays, in order to beat the time and be ready for the early sitting of the UNEB exams. So, Ministry of Education Officials why not adjust ua selves and let the schools plan accordingly since they see the whole nation is warming up for the CHOGM?

I hope that after the Government big spending on CHOGM, Uganda will still have the funds to continue supporting the USE programs so that even next year more students are admitted into the Universal Secondary education program http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/567058  

Some interesting articles on education in Uganda:

http://ugpulse.com/ugandan-community/forums/thread/1606.aspx     P7, S4 and S6 Exam results discussed.

http://ugpulse.com/ugandan-community/forums/thread/2955.aspx     Improving primary school education

http://ugpulse.com/ugandan-community/forums/thread/2669.aspx   ARU = African Rural University for Women