Forty primary seven teachers in Nakaseke district have sat examinations to test their competence after their candidates failed Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).
According to the PLE results for Nakaseke district, 604 candidates (12.9%) passed in the first division, 2,706 candidates (57.9%) in the second division, 728 candidates (15.6%) in the third division, and 361 candidates (7.7%) in Division four.
The results indicate that 276 candidates (5.6%) failed and 138 candidates (2.9%) of 4,813 candidates that registered didn’t sit the examinations in 2023.
The worst performing schools were Kagando Mixed Primary School where 59% of candidates failed, Kikamulo C/U where 50% failed, Timuna P/S where 45% of registered candidates failed and St Steven Standard P/S where they registered 38% failed.
Others are Wakayamba P/S where 35% of the candidates, Butikwa project P/S where 33% failed and Joshua Zaake P/S where 24% of candidates failed among others.
Ignatius Koomu the LCV Chairperson of Nakaseke ordered the Education Department to subject teachers who taught the learners in 15 schools that performed poorly to do competence tests.
On Wednesday, the teachers from the schools sat the Mock examinations at Nakaseke Technical Institute to establish their knowledge about the subjects they teach and how competent they are to help their learners pass the exams. The mock examinations were the same that were administered to pupils in 2023.
Koomu said that learners could be failing the examinations because the teachers don’t know what they are teaching and are incompetent to enable candidates to pass.
Koomu said that the district had piled pressure on headteachers to ensure that all learners pass but these shifted the blame on incompetent teachers which forced them to administer exams to them.
The district also intends to administer Primary Leaving Examinations to the teachers next year as an ongoing measure to test their competence and take action against them.
Those who fail the examinations face demotion to lower classes and others are likely to face the Rewards and Sanctions Committee for disciplinary action.
The district also intends to demote the headteachers of the schools where over 10% of candidates failed PLE.
But earlier on Emmanuel Kizza, the Chairperson of Uganda National Teachers Union, Nakaseke branch said that it was unfair to blame headteachers and teachers over poor performance without addressing causes that include understaffing, lack of accommodation and automatic promotion of weak students among others.
Since the Nakaseke district council passed the resolution to demote headteachers over poor PLE results in 2017, over 40 headteachers have been demoted to classrooms but later re-instated after showing commitment to work and improving performance.
In 2018, Nakaseke District Council passed a resolution to administer PLE to the teachers to test competence but the Ministry of Education and Sports halted the implementation after protests emerged from the Teachers’ Union.
The ministry indicated that there was no approved policy stating that if a teacher scores below the given mark in any competency test he/she can be laid off.
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