A building is only as strong as it’s foundation and the primary level of education is a foundational stage which must be highly handled with a lot of care. The quality of education children in the rural areas of the country attain does not match the standard of the assessment they undergo at the end of the cycle which leaves many vulnerable and on the verge of failing.
The most recent PLE results which was released (for the 2023 candidates) left over 88,000 (eighty eight thousand) pupils ungraded which means they cannot proceed to secondary school level unless they reseat.
When such huge numbers keep on compiling we are likely to have a timebomb in a few years to come. Imagine these 88,269 children transit to adulthood and have to find a means of survival!
On the other hand we have schools in the urban centres which also mainly focus on ensuring that they meet their promise of having all their pupils pass with the best grades and totally ignore the other necessary skills and values this child needs to thrive in life simply because they are not directly assessed at the PLE level. This and many other factors have highly impacted the quality of education the children are attaining in the country however the question still remains; “Which kind of Ugandan do you want to see before you?”
Our Executive Director, Dr. John Mary Vianney Mitana was priviledged to share thoughts about the 2023 PLE overall performance on national news (NTV Tonight 25/01/2023). In the live interview, they discussed possible factors leading to the downward trend in the education.