By Naboth Isaac Niwagaba
Kabale District Education Office has officially released the 2023 Primary Leaving Examination – PLE results revealing “Progressive Improvement” in general performance.
The official figures were yesterday, announced by the the Kabale District Inspector of Schools Wilberforce Nabaasa during a meeting between the education office and Primary School Headteachers, at Kabale District Rukiiko Hall. The aim of the meeting was to hand over the 2023 PLE results and to discuss preparation of re-opening Schools for the 2024 academic year whose first term starts Monday next week, on Feb. 5, 2024.
According to Mr. Nabaasa, out of 3,022 pupils who registered for PLE in Kabale District last year, 210 came in Division I, 1,677 in Division II, 791 in Division III, 293 in Division IV, 180 were ungraded while 51 did not show up for the exams. He explained that the results indicated progressive improvement in general performance compared to the previous year, 2022.
“For example the number of absentees has reduced from 140 in 2022 to 51, this year. In 2022, the failures were 314 but now they have reduced to 180.”
Mr. Nabaasa further explained that the general performance by percentage has improved indicating that Kabale District stood at 92.8% this year, compared to last year’s 87.8%.
In the ranking of Divisional grades, Victorious Preparatory School in Kitumba Subcounty was ranked the best Non- UPE School with 54 candidates in Division 1, while Kavu Primary School in Maziba Subcounty was declared the best performing UPE School with all P.7 candidates in only Division 1 and 2.
Best performing Pupils from Non- UPE Schools were declared as Natuhumuriza Mark and Ninshaba Mary from Victorious Preparatory School in Kitumba Subcounty both with aggregate 4, while Ajuna Reagan with aggregate 6, from Buhumba Primary School in Kamuganguzi Sub county was the best performing Pupil from a UPE School.
The Inspector of Schools also named schools whose results were a matter of concern to the District Education Office and therefore needed to improve. Most of them are found in Buhara and Kibuga Subcounty. Buhara recorded the largest number of absentees (8) and the largest number of ungraded 44, while Kibuga Subcounty had no single candidate in Division 1.
The Kabale District Education Officer-D.E.O Moses Bwengye Tumwijukye said they would help the under-performing Schools to improve through intensifying supportive supervision and inspection, adding that they had found out that among other challenges, the main problem was absenteeism of both teachers and pupils.
“We have realized that some schools have a challenge of too much absenteeism on the sides of both the teachers and pupils, and we are determined to eliminate the problem by intensifying supervision and inspection so that we find out why some schools performing poorly,” he said.
Some of the Headteachers who spoke to this reporter anonymously explained that some of the other challenges affecting performance included failure of parents to provide enough learning materials for their children; such as books and pens, while some pupils were learning on empty stomachs, especially in the UPE Schools.
The Headteacher Nyabushabi Primary School (UPE), Mr. Alex Biryomumeisho said that a number of factors affecting pupils’ performance were majorly related to their environment at home. All the 34 candidates from his school posted only Division 1 and 2 in last year’s PLE, but he argued that the performance would have been better if they were not limited by the candidates’ home backgrounds.
“For instance, one of the girls in our last year’s class was staying with her father. They were only two in the house, and this meant that she did almost all the house work and had very little or no time to revise her books. Still she scored 15, missing the first division with only two points.” Biryomumeisho said.
