UACE exams kickoff with no major hitches

UACE exams kickoff with no major hitches

KAMPALA. The Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education examinations, which began yesterday, got off to a flying start across the country. 

By press, no school had reported any ugly incidents as all the candidates arrived in their respective schools on time.
However, there was a slight delay of between 10 to 20 minutes in the distribution of examination materials in some schools in Kampala, which was partly attributed to the menacing traffic jams in the city .

Mr Boniface Sserunkuma, a chief invigilator at St Peters SS, Nsambya, said absence of a female on the invigilating team delayed the start of the first paper as they couldn’t check female candidates.

“The slight delay was caused by a combination of unforeseen problems like not having a woman on our team –something that forced us to look for one who was not a supervisor to help us check the female candidates,” he said

In Mbale district, at least five candidates missed the first exams after they were reported to be sick.

 Mr Bernard Nakisa, the chief invigilator at Mbale SS said the candidates’ students did not show up for examinations because they were reportedly very ill.

“The reports from school indicate that the students are ill and  that is why they have not shown up but they were registered to sit for the examinations, “said Mr Nakisa.

Uganda Examinations Board executive secretary Matthew Bukenya said no cases of malpractices were reported on Day one.

“ Even in Ntoroko District where we expected floods to disturb our people ,the situation has been okay at the two examination centres we  have ,” he said

He allayed fears of invigilators and supervisors about their delayed allowances, saying the process has been finalized and all be paid by Friday .

At Nkoma SS, the Chief Invigilator, Mr William Okotel said the examinations started well without any anomalies and students reported in time and none of them absconded.

In Jinja ,a  power outage at  Lords Meade Vocational College interfered  candidates who  where doing their  Biology Practical  Paper  ,forcing management  to use a generate to sufficient light in the laboratory .

Reports across the districts of Mbale, Sironko, Manafwa, Bududa, Bulambuli, Tororo, Bukedea, Soroti, Kumi and Soroti revealed there were no major disruptions.

Early last month the Ministry of Education in a circular warned all school heads not to refuse candidates from siting exams on account of nonpayment of school fees provided they registered for the examinations .

A total of 108,359 candidates are sitting for the exams at 1,803 centres, down from 115,780 who sat the exams last year.

Candidates are today (Tuesday) writing their History Paper One, Two, Three   and Mathematics paper One and Two.

39 percent of schools in Kla, Wakiso operate illegally –Survey

39 percent of schools in Kla, Wakiso operate illegally  –Survey

KAMPALA. A new school survey in Kampala and Wakiso districts by Agile Learning Company (ALC) has revealed that total of 1567 schools; representing 39 percent of the existing schools are not captured in the Ministry of Education database.

This implies that such schools are operating illegally.

The ministry of education commissioned the ALC, a pre- eminent  provider of ICT solutions  to carry out the survey in July as part of the a pilot project to map all schools using global positioning system (GPS) technology embedded in smart phones. The project is being by the ministry to address the phenomenon of ghost schools, pupils and teachers.

According to the survey, out of the 1567 schools, 1,246 are in Wakiso(56 percent) while 321 in Kampala.

“ In Wakiso District ,results indicate that a total of 1,246(i.e 712 pre-primary ,439 primary and 95 secondary schools are operational but not yet captured in the EMIS database. Out of the 439 schools, 17 are government aided ,” the 71-page report reads in part.

Enumerators from ALC had anticipated to find 2,753  schools as captured in the existing Ministry of Education Information Management System database 2013 ,but were shocked to find an additional 1694 schools ,bringing the total number of educational institutions in both areas  to 4330 . Paradoxically, out of the official schools (2753) ,a total of 92 schools ,69 of which in Kampala, were not found on the ground .

“The exercise failed to obtain information from the district and local officials as to whether these schools were once in existence, closed or relocated.” adds the report

Of these (4330)  ,127 private schools refused to be mapped  administrators  were not available to provide the requisite data while others were closed.

The school mapping exercise also discovered inconstancies in the naming of schools, with some school names slightly different from those they submitted to government. Another 118 schools had changed their administrative locations –making it hard to be traced.

Mr Arnold Dhatumwa , the commissioner Education Planning and Policy Analysis said the problem has been exacerbated   by mushrooming private schools that want to operate  before fulfilling the necessary procedures  set by government .He said by revealing the survey findings, the ministry had done her part and it is now the local authorities in Kampala and Wakiso to play their part.

“Most of these  are private schools .They are really hostile, they don’t want to be monitored because they know they are giving a raw deal to the public,” he said ,adding “The onus is now on the authorities in Kampala and Wakiso to crack the whip and address this problem internally,” he said

Currently, there are at least 20,000 private schools across the country. Despite charging high fees, most parents prefer taking their children to private schools ostensibly because they offer high quality services as compared to government-aided schools.

Mr Asadu Kirabira, the in charge of Research at National Private Education Institutions Association blamed the existence of illegal schools on the bureaucracy involved in licensing and registration of private schools.

“No one wants to operate illegally but they are just forced by the prevailing circumstances, “he said by telephone yesterday

“One can apply for a license and takes a year or two to get it .What do you expect that person to do?” he asked

On schools that shunned the mapping exercise, Kirabira said government failed to involve them in the exercise yet they have a complete register of all private schools in the country and their locations.

In 2011,the Auditor General’s office unearthed about 500 non-existent schools which were being planted in the Ministry of Education’s data base and were receiving money ,causing losses to government .In Amuru District alone, it was discovered that  government was losing  at least Shs71.4million per term to 15,539 ghost UPE pupils .

Top Muslim youth leaders stripped of powers to run William street mosque

Top Muslim youth leaders stripped of powers to run

 William street mosque

KAMPALA .The leader of the Muslim Tabliq sect, Sheikh Yunus Kamoga has urged Muslims to remain united despite internal bickering that threatens to tear the top youth leadership apart.

Speaking after Juma prayers at Nakasero Mosque last Friday, Sheik Kamoga said all possible avenues are being explored to keep his leadership together.

“Despite our internal differences, we have we remain brothers and sisters and nothing should tear us apart,” he said  

Kamoga’s call came a day after four members of his executive were stripped of the powers to run William Street Mosque. These include; Sheik Swidiq Ndaula, Sheik Mustapha Bahiga, Hajj Najib Ssonko and Sheik Hassan Kirya .

The decision followed complaints from worshippers that the officials had dominated the affairs of the mosque for years yet they also sit on the national executive committee.

“A mosque is supposed to have its own management committee ,but surprisingly all the affairs have been run by members of the top executive committee .So ,this is unfair and we cannot move like that,” said Hajj Umar Ausi Kamoga ,the publicity secretary on the new mosque committee .

The worshippers also accuse their leaders of serving for nine years without their mandate and failing to give proper accountabilities of the money collected from the mosque.

Others elected on the mosque  committee include, Hajj Haruna Saazi Mabira ,chairperson ,Salim Kasujja(Secretary) ,Hajj Abdulhamid Kiganila ( Treasurer),  Abdul Hamid Salim and Hamiis Matovu( both in charge of Defence ) and Sheik Hassan Nyanzi and Yonus Kabenge( Imams)

But Sheik Kirya, who also doubles as the spokesperson of the Kibuli-based Muslim administration said the new team was illegally installed and insisting that the old management is the one supposed to run the mosque.

“ We know what transpired and in the spirit of  living in harmony, we   never wanted to cause unnecessary tension but our top management  is sitting on Monday(today) to resolve that matter,” he said by telephone on Saturday

The mosque, located on Plot 30 William Street  has been under contention since 2005 .The Muslim youths seized control of it the same year following reports that the administration of Mufti Shaban Mubajje at Old Kampala had sold it to city businessman  Hassan Basajjabalaba through   his firm, Haks Express Ltd who later sold it to another businessman Mr Drake  Lubega at $2milion .It houses at least 50 shops and a mosque.

Despite Muslims occupying it and collecting dues from shops, Lubaga still insists that it belongs to him and the property legally belongs to him and possesses   the title deed. There are unconfirmed reports that government has since compensated Lubega to enable the property  revert to the Muslims.

The Muslim Community has suffered a series of leadership wrangles since the 1960s with one faction fighting to produce the supreme leader .There have been several attempt by successive governments to unit them in vain.

When Idi Amin seized power in 1971, he compelled all the groups to merge under Uganda Muslim Supreme Council. He also took over responsibility of naming the Mufti which caused some unity but after his government collapsed, they split again . 

Unity was again achieved in 2000 when the groups came under Mubajje ,but his administration is also suffered the same   with a section of Muslims accusing him of  selling community land , and this  led to breakaway faction led by Sheikh Zubair Kayongo.

Private schools caught inflate enrollment numbers to defraud govt-Report

Private schools caught  inflate enrollment numbers to defraud govt-Report

KAMPALA. President Museveni’s proposal to scrap free education in partnering private schools is likely to get credence following evidence that some schools inflate enrollment figures to ostensibly defraud government of capitation money.

According to a spot check validation exercise done in selected schools by the Ministry of Education last Month, it was discovered that some school administrators simply mobilise youth in their vicinities to masquerade as students during head count, yet they are not registered students at the schools. The validation report faults school heads of failure to transparently maintain both admission records and daily attendance registers .

“There is a deliberate and fraudulent falsification of data in all schools visited, but the situation is worse in PPP schools with Sisiya High School emerging as the worst case scenario of all the schools sampled during this validation exercise,” a 29-page validation report reads in part.

In one of the sampled schools- Sisiyi High School in Bulambuli District, students confirmed that enrollment for the first and second term had never reached 100 yet authorities claim there were 482 students. Suppose the falsification of data has been ongoing for 3 years, it means government has lost Shs162.4m in only one school.

When the team entered classrooms, the report says they found that most desks were empty and school administrator claimed students had been sent home to collect feeding fees. “ So ,the team decided to request each student to name at least three full names of students they thought were absent and none of them could give an answer ….there was indeed no document to confirm officially that students had been sent away to collect fees,”

The report says, many private schools don’t want to submit any information regarding their operations and a few that comply do so after seeking clearance from their directors. It cites Sironko Parents where the head teacher had to first call the proprietor of the school who happen to be an MP.

The report comes months after Mr Museveni directed the Ministry of Education to scrap private schools from implementing free education ,insisting that government was simply ‘donating’ free money to school proprietors .Mr Museveni said the Shs53b spent on private schools annually can be used to construct 88 government schools annually in the 243 sub-counties.

The report also reveals that most private schools do not meet minimum criteria for participation in the implementing USE programme because they lack institutionalised governance and management structures.

“There is no transparency and accountability in the management of USE resources. Instead, the management of these schools appears to be revolving around the proprietors who are firmly micro managing these schools.” adds the report

According to the report, some local leaders admitted knowing what is going on in the schools, but failed to take corrective action for fear of reprisals from some proprietors who are said to be politically well connected.

The validation exercise was conducted in sample schools in Mbale, Bulambuli , and Sironko districts .Five schools were sampled in the three districts . A similar exercise has been done in Namayingo , Kampala,Wakiso  ,Kibale districts .This followed three data collection exercises across the country with all providing varying figures on both enrollment and attendance of students –something that puzzled government when disbursing capitation money for Second Term .For example, at St. Joseph BuyagaSS –Sironko, the school census showed that it has a population of 1,417 students ,but the head count and ministry of finance surveys revealed 1,027 and 800 students respectively .Nkooma Muslim SS, had no students during the annual school census, but the head count and ministry of finance reports  put enrollment at 2,859 and 343 respectively .  

All the schools sampled, none had accounted for the capitation money disbursed to them as required .For instance, Sisiyi High School has never accounted for government funds since 2008 while Sironko Parents has not done the same for the last three years.

- Mr Joseph Eilor, the assistant commissioner Education Planning and Policy Analysis said: “The president was spot on and such revelation is going to change the way we do our data collection and avoid relying on only source,”

In fact, whoever doubts our findings should ask investigating arms of government to investigate and I am sure they will certainly get shocked.”

Mr Ezra Mwambu , the proprietor  Sisiyi High School said: “Being a politician, I have opponents and it is those opponents who gave the ministry wrong information .The people they interviewed have never said anything good about the school and as a director ,I wasn’t interviewed ,”

-Each student in a private school implementing the scheme gets Shs47,000 per term while one in a government-aided school and BTVET institution  receives Shs41,000  and Shs 150,000 respectively on top of meeting all the operational expenses of the school. Parents, though, have to provide the students’ uniform, stationery and meals but very few meet their obligation.

-Currently, a total of 863 private secondary schools are in partnership with government out of 1,785 schools implementing the free education in the country.
Of the 806,992 beneficiaries under the Universal Secondary Education programme, a total of 300,000 are estimated to be in private schools.

Recommendations:

- A spot check validation exercise should be adopted as an efficiency strategy for ensuring that resources disbursed under capitation grants not abused through deliberate manipulation of date

-Sisiyi High School be urgently investigated on deliberate and fraudulent falsification of data to obtain capitation grants

-Beginning 2015/16, all PPP schools should be required to sign an MoU with Education ministry afresh.

-

NCHE has no powers to order varsity to cancel degree-Court rules in Joho's controversial case

PRESS RELEASE

“Ugandan Judge quashes decision of the National Council Of Higher Education in Joho‘s degree case”

The Ugandan High Court has today, the 20^th of October, 2014 in Miscellaneous Cause No. 53 of 2014: Kampala University=Vs= National Council For Higher Education declared the decision of the National Council of Higher Education of Uganda of 30^th April, 2014 that purported not to recognize the degree of Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho as a nullity. The degree was awarded by Kampala University, Uganda. Justice Stephen Musota sitting in Kampala while delivering the Judgment criticized the National Council of Higher Education for giving in to external pressures in arriving at its decision.

The learned Judge held that the National Council of Higher Education had no jurisdiction to recall or not to recognize whether directly or indirectly individual degrees awarded by any University in Uganda. The Judge held that the power to do is vested in a University Senate under the provisions of the Universities and other Tertiary Institutions Act, 2001.

According to Dennis Mosota Joho’s Nairobi lawyer the judgment has far reaching effects beyond their case.

“To us, beyond vindicating Hon. Joho’s degree, this is a very profound and far reaching decision as far as the regulatory powers of the National Council for Higher Education are concerned. The Judgment affirms the academic independence of individual institutions of higher learning as well as bolsters the independence of University organs such as the University Senate as well as the University Council”.

The Judge took issue in the manner in which the National Council of Higher Education conducted the proceedings. He condemned the practice of public officials sitting behind their desks and trampling on the guaranteed rights of private citizens without giving them a right to be heard.

Early in the year on 30th of April, 2014 at a Special Council Meeting the National Council of Higher Education passed a resolution to the effect that “There was no clear evidence that academic due process was followed from admission to graduation regarding a Bachelor of Business Administration Decree (Human Resource Management Option) awarded to MR. HASSAN ALI JOHO by Kampala University. And therefore, the Council resolved that it did not recognize the Bachelor of Business Administration degree awarded to MR. HASSAN ALI JOHO by Kampala University on 28^th February 2013”.

In today’s land mark judgment, the Judge having found that the decision of the National Council for Higher Education was reached ultravires; in contempt of a Court Order and without giving any of the affected parties an opportunity of being heard, contrary to the rules of Natural Justice, made the following orders:

a.      An order of certiorari quashing the decision of the Council reached on 30^th April, 2014.

b.      order of prohibition prohibiting the Respondent from using, disseminating and/or in any other manner whatsoever, using the decision contained in the resolution of 30^th April, 2014 in any manner inimical to the interests of the Applicant in respect of the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration awarded to Hassan Ali Joho, as expressed in the resolution aforesaid or any other manner thereto ejusdem generis.

c.       An order of permanent injunction issues restraining the Respondent from interfering in any way with the Applicant’s grant of the subject degree to HASSAN ALI JOHO

d.      The Judge also awarded costs of the Application to be borne by the National Council for Higher Education

Ends

GPS

Mombasa County

For Further information please contact:

Ms. Esther Ingolo

Director Governor’s Press Service

Email: e.ingolo@gmail.com

Opposition struggles to reconcile Lukwago with Kidandala

Opposition struggles  to reconcile

Lukwago with Kidandala

KAMPALA.The opposition members last week convened a closed -door meeting where they discuss means of how they can reunite embattled Kampala Lord Mayor with his deputy Sulaiman Kidandala.

Mr Erias Lukwago fallen out with Mr Kidandala last month, with the latter accused of plotting to oust the former from City Hall, home of the Kampala Capital City Authority.

The meeting took place at Katonga road at the offices of the   For God and my Country (4GC) pressure group, last Wednesday and the former Forum for Democratic Change Dr Kizza Besigye reportedly chaired the meeting.

It was reportedly attended by Dr Besigye, Ibrahim Ssemujju, Ingrid Turinawe, Mr Asuman Basalirwa; Moses  Kasibante, Democratic Party spokesperson Mr Kenneth Kakande, Kawempe Division Mayor Mubarak Munyagwa and Kampala Disctrict DP chairperson  Vincent Mayanja.

Although the meeting’s main agenda, according to officials, was to find mechanisms to reconcile Lukwago and Kidandala, members also reportedly listened to recordings of the Kayihura tapes.

It is alleged that some members after listening to the one and half hour recordings, they disagreed on what action to take against Kidandala.

“Some members suggested that the opposition summon Kidandala to a meeting which will be attended by Mr Lukwago,” the source said. “However, others suggested that they launch a smear campaign against Kidandala, but Ssemujju and Basalirwa contested this proposal arguing that the opposition would look like targeting an individual and could split the unconsolidated opposition even more.,” the source said.

Mr Ssemujju , who attended the meeting said a number of issues were discussed in the meeting.

“We discussed a number of issues including a discussion on Kidandala, but we never discussed anything to do with a smear campaign against him, it not true,” Mr Ssemujju said in a telephone interview.

Dr Besigye yesterday was not available for a comment, however, he told Daily Monitor’s Erias Mukiibi on Saturday night that the meeting took place, but could not discuss details of the meeting as he was a central player in the discussion.

When asked about the meeting, Mr Lukwago said he did not attend it, however, recently at press briefing where he sacked Kidandala, Lukwago said he would give him a second chance to reform.

Kidandala said he had heard some rumours about the meeting, but refused to comment on what he heard, despite that he earlier in an interview with newspaper, said he had no interest in taking up the Lord Mayor’s seat.

Mr Basalirwa said details of the meetings will be communicated at a press conference slatted for tomorrow ( Wednesday).

Background

There have been some reports that Kidandala was likely to be installed as Lord Mayor at a meeting convened by KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi in Entebbe, but this never came to pass . Similar allegations have been made that Kidandala was set to chair the forum of Mayors who converged recently in Kampala.

Chances get slim for Uganda to attain MDG 4, 5 targets-Repor

Chances get  slim for Uganda to attain MDG 4, 5 targets-Report

KAMPALA. Although Uganda has registered  remarkable progress in  improving both child and maternal health care, there is still an uphill task of addressing neonatal mortality rate in the next four months if the country is to fully achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5,a new survey  has shown .

Neonatal mortality rate is the number of babies dying before reaching 28 days of age; per 1,000 live births in a given year. For the case of Uganda, neonatal mortality rate currently stands at 27 per 1,000 live births and government had earlier projected to reduce it to 23 per 1,000 live births by 2015.

“Available evidence suggests that Uganda has witnessed accelerated progress towards the attainment of the under-five mortality target between 2006 and 2011 and could achieve the 2015 target of 56/1,000 live births. However, this will depend heavily on a drastic fall in neonatal mortality rate in the remaining period,” the 68-page report reads in part.

According to the 2012/13 State of Uganda Children report , the country’s  maternal mortality ratio which was expected to  drastically fall to 131/100,00 as the 2015 deadline comes closer ,has  stagnated  at 438/100,000 live births.
Since 2006, the maternal mortality rate in Uganda has stagnated at 438 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The report, which was compiled by the National Council for Children was launched in Kampala yesterday .It assesses the progress Uganda has made in realizing the two MDGs on reducing child mortality and improving maternal health and provides recommendations to fast-track progress .

State minister in charge of Primary Health Care, Sarah Opendi, who launched the report, said the challenge facing Uganda was not only to maintain the down ward trend in overall child mortality, but also to adopt a strong geographical and population focus to health care provision.

“The challenge before us is to ensure that we make a strategic shift and put  emphasis on those geographical areas like Karamoja, northern Uganda which have the highest mortality and populations groups carrying the largest disease burden” she said

She said, although government had scaled up immunisation of children (96 percent) and reduced the number of children being born with HIV   from 25,000 to 8,000, a bigger challenge is still with the high number of existing malnourished children.

The eight Millennium Development Goals which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability, increasing access to universal primary education and developing a global partnership for development by 2015 are a blue print agreed to by world leaders in 2000.

However, many African countries are lagging behind on achieving MDGs barely four months to the 2015 deadline   and for the case of Uganda it has only succeeded in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving debt sustainability and it is quite clear that it may not achieve other goals in just a few months.