The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
First Lady and Minister for Education and Sports Janet Museveni has said improving assessment is essential to improve the quality of education in Uganda.
Janet Museveni gave a keynote address on assessment at the Education World Forum (EWF) in London January 23-26 where she recognized that assessment and examinations lie at the very core of any education system in terms of improving learning and setting incentives for teachers, learners and parents.
The EWF is the biggest annual gathering of education ministers across the world, offering insight and inspiration from leading education pioneers, policy makers and education experts.
During her visit, the First Lady also visited a secondary school in inner city London. With increased autonomy, innovative financing and great school leadership, the minister learned how the school had turned around its performance over the past 10 years as part of broader school reforms in England.
The visit builds on the historically strong relationship between Uganda and the UK, with the UK spending approximately $270m per year to support Uganda’s social and economic development.
I’m pleased to have met the chief executive officer British Council, Sir Ciaràn Devane in London. pic.twitter.com/VrFNIgW8pU
— Janet K Museveni (@JanetMuseveni) January 30, 2017
The First Lady met with Ministers from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development (DFID) to discuss the UK-Uganda partnership.
In 2016, DFID Uganda launched its new education programme which will support over 300,000 Ugandan girls and boys have a decent education over the next five years.
DFID is prioritising its support to ensure more girls and boys have access to good quality education in state primary schools and also improve their learning.
DFID will also work with the Government of Uganda to improve public private partnerships at both secondary and pre-primary schools so more children can attend school.
“It has been a very informative visit for me. I will return to Uganda full of ideas to further develop and push our priorities in education so that all children in Uganda are able to access a good quality education. The education of Ugandan children is key to our future prosperity,” Janet Museveni said.
The Head of DFID Uganda, Jennie Barugh said, “With Uganda’s rapidly growing population and constrained resources, it’s so important that Uganda looks for new ways to enable more children to be able to go to school and learn. This will help them have a brighter future. Through our new education programme DFID aims to work with the Government of Uganda to do just that.”
UCE results out
Education and sports minister Janet Museveni has released the 2016 Uganda Certificate of Examination (UCE) results that indicated a failure rate of 13.2% compared to 9.7% in 2015.
Minister Museveni was critical of mock exams done in preparation for the final exams, saying they should be discouraged as they take away valuable time that would have been used for teaching.
UNEB executive secretary Daniel Nokrach Odongo revealed that results of 1,893 candidates have been withheld. It was also revealed that of the 323,276 candidates registered, 316,624 sat the final exams, with more boys (2.2%) than girls (1.99%) absent.
Girls beat the boys in English, but together with mathematics and the sciences, were the worst done subjects.
Janet Museveni arrives to officially Release #UCE2016 results @882SanyuFM pic.twitter.com/BmJH8gJcOQ
— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
Mary Okwakol : There was an increase of 3.2percent in number of students who sat the exams #UCE2016 @882SanyuFM
— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
Okwakol:.Gender parity has almost been achieved with 49.1 percent students being gals and 50.9percent who sat exams @882SanyuFM #UCE2016
— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
Absenteeism dropped by 2.1%
More boys were absent than girls
3543 Boys, 3109 girls @882SanyuFM #UCE2016 pic.twitter.com/LUuu8nOfUR— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
366 special needs students sat for #UCE2016
59 Blind
62 Deaf
15 Dyslexics
63 Physically handicapped
92 minor disability @882SanyuFM— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
Failure rate in shot up to 13% from 9.7% from 2015
Failure attributed to drop in performance in Math, English, Sciences. @882SanyuFM— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
Performance according to Divisions showing failure and passing rates#UCE2016 @882SanyuFM pic.twitter.com/tqdqcumS0U
— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
Non-USE schools performed better than USE schools @882SanyuFM pic.twitter.com/iocDoUotEJ
— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
Non-USE schools performed better than USE schools @882SanyuFM pic.twitter.com/iocDoUotEJ
— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
Girls tailing in performance. They topped Division 9@882SanyuFM pic.twitter.com/gE85BYfLZ3
— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
@Natabaalo
For the data junkie, the UNEB personnel is making our lives easy pic.twitter.com/4TYnNg5KTO— #Daughter of Olango (@ruthadong) January 31, 2017
