A report by the New Vision has revealed that Private schools have once again topped the country’s A’level schools in having the highest number of students admitted on private sponsorship to Makerere University.
Among the top 10, St Mary’s SS Kitende, St Peter’s Naalya, and Naalya SS Namugongo, which are all private schools, have the highest number of students admitted to Makerere University.
In the fourth position was St Joseph’s SS Naggalama, followed by Gayaza High School, the Academy of St Lawrence, Seeta High School, Maryhill High School, Trinity College Nabbingo and Cornerstone Leadership Academy and Uganda Martyrs SS Namugongo. Gayaza HS, Maryhill High School and Trinity College Nabbingo, are government-aided schools, while the rest are privately-owned.
The ranking was based on schools with the highest percentage of students admitted on private sponsorship, in comparison to the number of candidates per institution, who sat Senior Six national examinations in 2019.
The ranking only considered Makerere University, since it always admits almost half of the entire country’s S6 leavers with the other half absorbed in the remaining 50 universities in the country.
Disturbing trend
Director of basic and secondary education Ismael Mulindwa says there is need to ensure that there are more public traditional schools topping the country’s ranking.
“There is no reason why traditional schools should not excel. We pay their teachers’ salaries and support them with infrastructure, on top of them having big budgets,” he says.
Mulindwa adds: “It is surprising that some of the ‘weaker’ private schools always outcompete many traditional schools.”
He, however, adds that there is need to focus on the management of traditional government aided schools.
“Some people claim that private schools cheat, but that is a weak and illegitimate excuse. There was a case of schools which were cited to be strong in cheating. We assembled a strong team of scouts from Uganda National Examinations Board to monitor them and we realised that the schools kept improving instead,” Mulindwa said.
“It is not bad for private schools to excel. It is a Government policy to have a liberalized education system. We just need to get public schools to be more accountable,” Mulindwa added.
Higher education state minister Dr John C. Muyingo says: “Gradually, we need to have the performance targets set for all headteachers in public schools. May be, this will make them more accountable. They will work towards meeting the targets, which will improve their performance. We will discuss this matter further and come up with solutions.”
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