Francis Kagolo
18 August 2008
Kampala — THE education ministry is to grade private secondary schools to establish their performance.
Under the programme, which is to be executed by Afro-Educare, an education consultancy firm, detailed stock-taking will be carried out and profiles compiled.
The rankings will be publicised in the media and on the internet to enable students and parents make informed decisions on which schools to join.
Robinson Nsumba-Lyazi, the assistant commissioner in charge of comprehensive secondary education, noted that some schools run deceptive adverts in the media to woo students.
"We shall grade them and come up with a list indicating the best and worst schools.
"Many schools use television and radio adverts to deceive that they have modern laboratories.
"How can the ministry just sit back and watch as schools keep on hoodwinking the public?" he asked.
He explained that the quality of the physical infrastructure (classrooms and dormitories), human resource (quality of teachers and other staff) and equipment schools have will be assessed.
Uganda, according to Lyazi, has over 3,000 private secondary schools.
However, many of them are neither registered nor licensed by the ministry.
"If they are registered, details of what they actually have to provide is unknown. This needs to be checked," Lyazi said.
Ranking schools, Lyazi said, was part of the ministry's plan to increase access to quality education.
In July, the Directorate of Education Standards closed over 22 schools in the central region for running unregistered boarding services and having poor facilities.
In Mubende district, one of the schools had only three teachers.
Education minister Namirembe Bitamazire on Monday launched a 24-hour inspection of schools.
The exercise will be done by ministry and internal security operatives.
"It takes time to gather and analyse data but within a year, we shall have finished grading them (schools)," the minister said.
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