Third term headaches for students, parents

Schools open today for the third term that will see some students promoted to the next class or level or conclude their primary or secondary school journey.

Dr Joyce Kaducu, the State Minister of Primary Education, said the 82-day term would run up to December 6. She said since there would be no more automatic promotion, no learner would progress to the next class without passing their exams.

She said those who fail would be required to repeat the class.

Automatic promotion was adopted in 2005 as part of a broader national education strategy aimed at enhancing internal efficiency in basic education to check school dropout, repetition and government expenditure on affected learners.

But educationists, especially those in the private sector, opposed the policy, arguing that it does not give chances to the weak students to improve.

Dr Joyce Kaducu said: “Given it being a promotional term, the ministry has been preparing all schools to be ready to receive learners on that day,” Dr Kaducu said.

She said the level of preparedness has covered lesion preparation, the learning environment, the classroom, playground and other sports facilities, security measures, and ICT accessories for secondary education.

Exams date

Mr Filbert Baguma, the secretary general of Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU), said the term, although short, would have many assessments.

He said the Senior Four candidates would be sitting for their Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams in three weeks, followed by the Primary Seven pupils for their Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) exams, and Senior Six candidates for the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations.

“This is a very short term as O–Level students will be sitting for their exams in mid-October and the Senior Six and Primary Seven will sit for theirs in November. The teachers are going to be extremely busy given the level of concentration on the assessments,” Mr Baguma said.

Exams anxiety

“There is this anxiety of Senior Four candidates who are going to sit for the first set of examinations under the new Lower Secondary curriculum. This is the first time they are doing these types of exams and most schools, especially in rural areas, have suffered and are still suffering with its implementation,” he added.

The Senior Four candidates are slated to sit for the examination under the new curriculum as well as the change in the grading system.

Unlike previously where the learners were graded in the Division system, the new grading system by the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) will show alphabetical scores on the front of the certificate and the detailed corresponding actual skills on the back of the document.

The alphabetical grading will run in descending order from A, B, C, D and E.

The Senior Four alumni will also be issued a separate certificate for project work.

Headache of mid-month

Meanwhile, Dr Kaducu indicated that the ministry has been educating parents on their roles to prepare learners spiritually, psychologically, and morally and to embrace discipline while at school.

“We have been telling parents to sit with their children and counsel them for the third term, and handle the feeding for their children. Remember, nutrition is critical for the learning process for our children, so parents should take up their role of providing meals for their children,” Ms Kaducu said.

But Mr Godfrey Kyazze, the leader of the Homeschooling group of parents, criticised the opening of the term mid-month, and some schools asking parents to pay all the fees at once, while others want a big part of it paid before the term begins.

“Starting schools in the middle of the month, where parents are broke is fine with parents whose children go to government schools where they probably do not have to pay anything. But for parents whose children are in private schools where they have to pay, it would be inconsiderate for the school term to start at such a time, unless the government does it on purpose to outcompete private school providers,” Mr Kyazze said.

He said starting the term in the middle of the month shows the contradiction between the government running its own schools in the same economy where there are private schools.

“My humble suggestion would be for the government to remain a referee and allow education to be managed by private players. Some will do it as a business and others as charities. Here, parents would choose where they take their children, but it would rule out any suspicious judgment,” he added.

While the official school opening is today, some schools reopened a week before, especially those with candidates.

Tips on exams

Mr Robert Mark Kamugasa, the deputy head teacher of Christ the King Senior Secondary School in Kalisizo, Kyotera District, urged the students to master the game of logical reasoning to easily interpret and ably answer Uneb questions as opposed to cram work.

“When you look at the Uneb timetable, candidates are left with about 30 days to the national examinations. They should practice how to answer logical questions as much as possible to excel in the exams,” Mr Kamugasa advised.

In March this year, Uneb released sample questions for UCE end-of-cycle competence-based assessment under the New Lower Secondary School Curriculum (NLSC).

Mr Dan Odongo, the Uneb executive director, told a two-day stakeholder meeting on the assessment under the NLSC held in Kampala on March 18 that the sample materials aimed to guide schools on the new assessment formats for Competency-Based Assessment (CBA).

“With these tools, schools will now be comforted and know how the assessment will go. The sample papers are, however, just dummies of what are likely to come in the end-cycle assessment. The final scenarios will certainly be different,’’ Mr Odongo said.

Mr Kamugasa said his school has already uploaded the project work as well as the marks for the continuous assessment for O-level candidates into the UNEB portal.

Uneb set September 30 as the deadline for submitting continuous assessment marks into their portal.

Under the new O–Level curriculum, schools conduct classroom-based assessment for learners throughout the four-year cycle, which will account for 20 percent of the final national examinations. Eighty (80) percent of the final marks will come from national examination scores.

Mr Deus Ssempijja, the head teacher of Nobel Mayombo Seed Secondary School in Kabarole District, said the candidates have already been prepared for the final examinations.

Mr Ssempijja believes that the teaching of the new curriculum will be more effective next year, since most of the teachers would have accessed trainings and schools secured the required instructional materials, including textbooks.

New grading system

Mr Ssempijja said the new grading system by Uneb presents some challenges, but said they will have to get used to it.

Mr Odongo told this newspaper in June this year that Uneb had introduced a new grading system for Senior Four candidates under the recently implemented competency-based curriculum.

He said the grading system will use letter grades A, B, C, D and E in descending order with each letter grade reflecting a specific level of competency achievement.

This will replace the existing numerical distinction, credit, pass, and failure rankings.

Mr John Mary Ahimbisibwe, the head teacher of St Mary’s Simbya Secondary School in Bundibugyo District, played down the anxiety of the O-level candidates over the new approaches of asking questions.

“The way they set questions is a bit unusual. Students have not been used to answering situational questions, which are a bit tricky, and you cannot predict the topic they are asking about. Out students have been used to direct questions,” he said.

Mr Ahimbisibwe, however, noted that the school administration had encouraged the teachers to set such questions during class work and tests so that students could start practicing approaches to such questions.

He also said the rest of the classes are equally being prepared for promotional examinations.

Mr Ahimbisibwe said they would continue charging school fees to raise salaries for teachers who are not yet on the government payroll despite a presidential directive stopping schools from offering Universal Secondary Education (USE) and Universal Primary Education (UPE).

He said students in the boarding section at his school would pay about Shs400,000 per term while day scholars would part with about Shs200,000.