Angry over poor PLE performance, Budaka chairperson threatens to sack headteachers

Education

The Budaka district chairperson Samuel Mulomi has directed the Chief Administrative Officer Abdu Batambuze to summon all headteachers whose schools performed poorly during last year’s PLE.

The Chairperson made this directive on Tuesday, 21st Jan 2020 during the first council meeting held at the council chambers.

He said, ‘’I want those head teachers to explain as to why they think they should continue heading schools yet the poor performance of their schools is spoiling the future of our future leaders?’’

Mulomi who was not happy of the PLE results said head teachers are dooming the future of the great children of Bugwere.

4,667 candidates from Budaka district sat for the exams whose results were released by UNEB on Friday last week. 163 candidates passed in division one, 159 candidates passed in division two, 1,151 candidates passed in division three, 851 were in division four, another 861 in division U while 45 were in division X.

The analysis of PLE results for 2019 indicates that there was a reduction of candidates who registered from 4703 in 2018 to 4,667 in 2019.

Equally there was a reduction in pass rates for division one from 171 candidates in 2018 to 163 candidates in 2019. The failure rate increased from 691candidates in 2018 to 906 candidates in 2019.

The best performing schools in the district were Cornerstone primary school where 37 candidates passed in division one out of 43 candidates, Joy blessed primary school where 20 candidates passed in division one out of 25, Namirembe primary school where 27 candidates got division one out of 126, Budaka Integrated where 10 got division one out of 20 candidates, Namengo girls primary school where 6 candidates were in division one out of 57 among others.

For the last nine years the district performance in division one has been as follows, 2011-181, 2012-185, 2013-171, 2014-170, 2015-133, 2016-210, 2017-156, 2018-171 and 2019-163.

Hon Farooq Gundi, a councilor representing Katira subcounty who doubles as secretary for education accused the CAO and district service commission of employing unqualified teachers.

According to Hon Gundi teachers in private school seem to be more qualified than those in government schools which should be investigated.

However, District Inspector of Schools Waako Richard attributed the unpredictable fluctuation of performance to acute understaffing in most schools. He said that in some schools teacher pupil ratio stands at 1:75 especially in lower primary contrary to the recommended 1:53 nationally.

He enumerated other problems like absenteeism of both children and teachers, lack of accommodation for teachers who trek long distances as some of the causes of poor performance in the schools.

There are additional challenges like the absence of lunch for both teachers and pupils, and the negative attitude of some parents towards education. He cited communities along the Namatala river belt who prefer taking their children to attend their rice gardens.  Automatic promotion to the next class means pupils lack incentive to work hard.

He however said strategy for 2020 the department will hold several workshops to sensitize teachers and parents and all the stake holders on the importance of education.

Butambuze, the Budaka CAO, accused some teachers of abandoning their duty stations for private business. He said, “Some teachers have continued to decampaign government schools by opening up private schools nearby and convince parents to take their children there.” ’

He noted that some private schools have a tendency of registering their weak candidates in government schools.

There are 59 government aided schools across the district.

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