While we should not be surprised the position many of the schools in West Nile
Region have taken in the 'worst' performing schools analysis that appeared in
the the New Vision news paper of Feb 11th 2011, I want to agree that if we have
to do something to change this trend, it should begin now.
What should we do to try change this trend?
1. Reconstitute the Fask Force that was chaired by Fr. Ruffino to look into the
poor performance of schools in the West Nile Region. The task force should
among
others be tasked to find out the academic environment, the students study in.
This should range from the location of the schools, the number of students in
each class, the availability of the relevant books in the school libraries
(if such exist), the morale of the students, the morale of the teachers, the
capability of the teachers to manage the subjects they have been assigned
to teach, the availability of the teachers to assist students after the normal
class hours, the remuneration of the teachers (for the case of private schools)
etc. Once they have completed this task, they should report for further
discussions to lay a stratefy for the way forward.
2. Encourage OB's and OG's to visit and have presentations to the students.
Such
could be done on days preceeding to the "school day" This, in my opinion, will
encourage the students regain the self esteem and cause them believe "they
can".
I know both MOSA and St. Josephs Ombaci OB's actively participate in these
activities. The OB's from other schools should follow suit.
3. Besides #2 above, we need to supplement the efforts of the parents in
provision of some of the relevant study materials and equip the libraries so as
to reduce the ration of 1 book to XXXX students to a fairly manageable number.
I
believe we can be able to identify the necessary books that the libraries need
to have through our firends who teach in schools within Kampala or those
schools
whose performance over time has been very good. Again, I know both MOSA and
Ombaci OB's have mobilised resources, procured a number of books and donated to
the respective schools.
As is the case in most down country schools, the management of the schools
should ask parents who are in position to buy a few key study texts for
their children to do so.
4. I would have expected the performance of the private schools to be better
since the proprietors of the schools need to know that once the performance of
the schools get to a level where the parents will not allow their children to
go
to such schools and the students will refuse to go to school, the that schools
definately closes. to my surprise again, a good number of the schools that have
performed very poorly are the private schools. The question that anyone should
ask is have such schools been established to make money or to provide the
service that the region and the students need? I believe the Education
authorities in the regions need to set up and adhere to a stringent set of
guidelines for private schools to follow if their licences are not to be
revoked. In this way, the school proprietors will know that they need to
monitor
the management and the teachers very closely.
We have very many members on this forum who have vast experience in education
management. Would you like to come out and help us to remedy the trend of
schools in WN region leading from behind?
As I conclude, we should not fail to appreciate the much that a handful of the
schools in the region have done. I would therefore like to congratulate the
students, teachers and the management of the following 10 schools from West
Nile
Region for the good results (based on our level), in the ranking as in the New
Vision of 9th February, 2011
1. Ushindi SS (number 136)
2. St. Josephs College Ombaci (number 157)
3. Mvara SS (number 161). Mvara had 32 Div1, 72 Div 2, 30 Div 3 and 14 Div 4.
Best student scored agg 17 in best 8.
4. Ediofe Girls SS (number 263)
5.St Peters and Paul seminary Pokea (number 388)
6. Mt. Wati SS (number 391)
7.Otravu SS (number 464)
8. Oleba SS (number 470)
9. Logiri Girls SS (number 522)
10. Metu SS. (number 656)
I believe we do more to improve on this performance.
Over to you.
________________________________
From: JohnAJackson <javud...@gmail.com>
To: westnilenet@kym.net
Sent: Fri, February 11, 2011 8:12:07 PM
Subject: [WestNileNet] Worst Performing Districts in O_level Exams
This should not surprise anyone. If you have had a chance to review the New
Vision today, our schools are at the bottom again.
Iganga district has the highest number of worst schools (29), followed by
Kasese
which has 25, Wakiso and Kabale which have 19 each. Other districts were
Sironko, Masaka, Tororo, Arua and Jinja.
Kakuka Hill SS in Bundibugyo district was the worst school after 21 (58.3%) of
its 36 students got Division 9. It was followed by Maracha Hall, a UNEB centre
in Maracha district, whose 74 (49.7%) of the 149 candidates failed.
Two years ago, we formed a Task Force to look into poor performance in the
schools. Unfortunately, Fr. Ruffino had to leave to take assignment overseas.
It
appears the leadership collapsed soon after his departure. It seems the acting
chairman by then is looking at Greener pastures at the Parliament where there
are some fruit trees, tubers etc.
I am not sure if the trends in poor performance will change anytime soon. Some
of the problems are pretty obvious: Poor quality education, lack of basic
necesseties like school laboratories, libraries, lack of teachers, un-motivated
students, over crowding, sub standard secondary schools, etc.
A couple of years ago, New York school District in USA had to fire all their
teachers for consistent poor performance. It was such a controversial decision
made by the school administration. It paid off. The district has not been on
the BAD map again.
The problem of pushing children to the next class without acquiring basic
skills
is killing African American Society in USA. A study released last week on
Aptitude Test for academicaic ranks Asians on Top, Whites next, Hispanis Middle
and African Americans at the bottom.
When Kenya Introduced a new education system in 1986 popularly known as
8-4-4,
8 years elementary, 4 years secondary & 4 years University. The quality of
education was so eroded that teachers were not enough to cope with double
treams. It diluted the education standard to a point where the well to do in
Kenya started sending their children to Uganda.
If we in West Nile have to improve quality of education for our children and
grand children, we will have to take serious steps/measures to address some of
the most obvious problems we can fix such as un-motivated students,
un-motivated
teachers, over crowding in classrooms, etc. If we do not take serious action
and change the course, our young generation is heading into a ditch.
If we all do nothing, nothing will change any time soon. The problem simply
gets
worse year after year.
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