The jury is out. After about 60 days of marking, grading, adjudication and computing, the long wait was over.
Last Thursday, results of the 2018 primary leaving examinations, PLE, were released to largely a loud outcry from Kampala’s elite schools and joyous celebrations from minnows.
The results have added fire to a public debate over whether paying high-end fees guarantees academic success. Pointed questions are beginning to be asked this time round such as; where are the schools that guarantee your child aggregate 4 no matter what? Where are the schools whose justification for hefty fees termly are their top grades?
The Observer dug up facts, and takes you into the inner world of marking and what could have led to a slump in the top schools’ scores. What is abundantly clear is that tables turned in the 2018 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE); the hitherto entitled elite schools in Kampala found themselves trailing as the little-known ones in Bukomansimbi, Lwengo, Mubende, and Kyotera outpaced them.
Paying an average of Shs 1.5m per term in Kampala could not guarantee top grade. Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has been blamed for ‘intentionally trying to put down’ schools in Kampala by undermarking them.
Uneb executive secretary Dr Dan Odongo has described the accusation as “complete nonsense.”
“Our scripts are treated in the same way whether a candidate sat in a Kampala school or a school in another district. Names of schools were [in 2018] not included on the scripts as it has always been. This is an effort to remove an element that may bias a marker so that every person marks papers without knowing the school they are marking,” Odongo told NTV on Monday.
The Observer analysis of the results actually shows urban and private schools countrywide still performed better than rural and government schools. But a deeper analysis of the results shows that schools which dominated three to five years ago are fast receding despite their school fees charges going up annually.
A look at schools that had their pupils score aggregate 4, the maximum cut a pupil can get at primary seven, shows giants are losing grip – just like it was in 2016 and 2017. Some 132 schools had at least a pupil scoring 4.
Hillside Primary School in Kira municipality led the pack with at least 57 of its pupils getting aggregate 4. Last year, the school was also top with 65 pupils getting the maximum score. At least 79 pupils got aggregate 5. Their sister school in Hoima called Flobbeto Nursery and Primary School had five pupils with aggregate four and all its 64 pupils passed with a first grade.
Hormisdallen PS in Gayaza had 47 pupils with 4, a huge leap from 2017’s 25 pupils. Cornestone Junior School in Mukono municipality and Uganda Martyrs Katwe PS in Masaka municipality tied in third position, each having 19 of their pupils scoring 4s. Global Junior School in Mukono municipality got 17. These are new entrants in the top pack with little name recognition.
Bishop Ddungu Boarding PS in Lwengo, Hormisdallen PS Kampala, Namagunga Boarding PS in Mukono district, and Namugongo Girls PS in Kira municipality had 16 pupils each scoring aggregate 4.
Meanwhile, Kampala Parents School had only two pupils with aggregate 4 and six pupils with aggregate 5 out of the class total of 237 pupils. Kampala Academy also had two pupils with aggregate 4 and three pupils with aggregate 5 out of 52. Kabojja Junior had none with aggregate 4 but three of its 252 pupils got aggregate 5.
Greenhill Primary School, Buwaate in Wakiso district didn’t have an aggregate 4 score and only seven pupils got aggregate 5 out of a class total of 57. Greenhill Academy had one pupil with aggregate 4 and just three with aggregate 5 out of a class total of 231 pupils. Last year, the school had thirteen aggregate 4s.
City Parents had one pupil with aggregate 4 and five pupils with aggregate 5 out of a class total of 302.
THE MARKING
Paying top fees draws tough questions especially if the schools’ results are poor. Since Thursday, when results were released, parents with pupils in top-tier schools have taken to social media to say their schools were undermarked largely “to fail them” and uplift upcountry schools.
A one Dr Roy Mayega wrote: “For the last three years (probably many more), UNEB seems to have conjured an unwritten policy to undermark the top schools in Kampala…the patterns with which these once thriving titans are [crashing] shows clearly that this trend is not occurring by chance alone.”
He added: “As soon as you jump out of Kampala, the grades, even in very urban schools in Wakiso district, shoot up…”
Another person named Wire James wrote a long post noting: “UNEB has been accused of marking city schools using a lot of scrutiny with the sole intention of ensuring that students don’t pass highly…”
But Prof Mary Okwakol, UNEB board chairperson, said while releasing exam results that this year, it was extremely hard for any person to know the school they marked.
“UNEB approved the roll-out of the use of numbers instead of school names at PLE,” Okwakol said. “These numbers [called] the Education Management Information System (EMIS) numbers are given by the ministry of Education and Sports during the time of registration of these schools. The use of the numbers instead of school names served to anonymise the schools and improve objectivity in process.”
The Observer also talked to several officials, including a UNEB official, a teacher who marked mathematics and one who marked science. They all told us there was hardly a chance that a teacher would know the school they marked.
A Uneb official said: “I think we are getting into an entitlement state of sorts to the extent that even for God-given things such as intelligence, there are people who think good grades are a preserve of city schools.” He added: “We had one grading scale for all schools.”
A teacher who marked mathematics told The Observer on Monday: “For the first time, we used EMIS numbers; it was really not easy to follow up a school.”
He noted, however, there were some invigilators who made mistakes and included the school name on the sitting form.
“Because of this error, at times you would know that I am marking a certain school. This was a new system and we didn’t expect it all to be perfect. But on average, these cases of invigilators filling school names were few.”
He added: “Claims that some [schools] were undermarked…that cannot happen. It is not true. Our fellow teachers and school proprietors should be realistic because if you don’t know the school that you are marking, how can you undermark its candidates?”
At least four people go through a marked paper before it’s cleared for the results to be entered into a computer, he said. An official at the ministry of Education told us marking centres had surveillance cameras. No person was allowed to enter the making centre with a phone, pen or book. They found whatever they wanted to use there.
Another examiner, who marked science paper, said: “This system of [EMIS numbers] has somehow helped us not to identify the schools we’re marking.
“I am one of those who make a marking guide and there is no way you can deny a child a mark when they have excelled whether in good or bad faith,” he said. “When it comes to marking, we use the same marking guide to mark all scripts but only a little lenience on English used to respond to questions from candidates in UPE schools.”
“I want to believe that some schools that didn’t score highly did not get a chance to have prior knowledge of the papers and maybe their candidates did not put the right answers.”
PROCESS
On marking, the mathematics examiner said, they were about nine to 11 examiners at a particular room.
“Each examiner can mark like 10 questions in section A and another one marks only three numbers in section B. So, a script cannot be entirely marked by one person. Once you finish those numbers, you forward the script to another examiner to mark other numbers.”
When you finish marking, there is another team that comes in to do adjudication [which involves checking whether all the learners scripts and questions were marked]. Another team for the grading and another team to enter results into the computer.”
“So, how can a school bribe all those teams to [help your school pass] when schools have only EMIS numbers; that’s a lot of work checking for [a particular school’s] scripts at the different marking centres,” he added.
In the marking room, he said, your phone must be switched off and left with the security personnel at the entrance. “There’s no way one can communicate to you to follow up on [how] their school has been marked.”
For instance, mathematics had three marking centres with 11 examiners in the room. Of these, 10 were marking and one used to collect envelopes for the team from the strong room which was also heavily guarded. This one person would keep moving around to assist examiners that were slow at marking.
“I think EMIS numbers are the right thing. If possible, Uneb should introduce different numbers each year. What used to happen is that an examiner starts marking a school with bias and we used to know these individuals,” he said.
STARS OUTSIDE KAMPALA
Meanwhile, at least 83 schools had all their pupils get first grade. Only three were from Kampala: Hope Nabulagala PS (35 pupils), Glorious Primary School (33), Sir Appollo Kaggwa PS Kisaasi (35) – the same number of schools as was in Kasese and Kyotera. Kalungu district has at least four schools while in Masaka, seven schools scored maximum results.
What this tells you is that elite schools in Kampala are losing the allure that they guaranteed your child top score – some sort of plus in balancing performance across the country.
Wherever you look across the country, there is a school that will give your child a top grade. A look at the grades shows that Bishop Ddungu Boarding PS in Lwengo had all its 99 pupils in first grade. KY Day and Boarding PS, Masaka municipality (98); Kisoso PS in Lwengo (88).
In Kyotera, Nabbunga Fountains of Education all 75 pupils were in grade one. In Sembabule, Dez Junior Academy (64) and Auntie Agnes Infant School had all 64 in grade 1 while while Visionary Junior in Sheema Main also had 64.
In Mukono, Jit PS (116) and Mukono Junior (62) carried all their candidates in first grade. Happy Years, Masaka had all 60 candidates in grade one – the same as Parental Care in Kasese (60).
In Kalungu district, St Mary’s Immaculate Villa PS (56), St Kizito Kyamulibwa PS (40), Kyamulibwa Parents (34), and St Aloysius Kyamulibwa PS (20).
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