Some education experts have asked the Education Policy Review Commission to consider scrapping the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) exams, to check what they have termed as purchase of grades.
Dr Lawrence Muganga, the Vice Chancellor of Victoria University, while appearing before the Commission yesterday, fronted continuous assessment of skills and competencies acquired by learners and introduction of District Evaluation Boards that would monitor the quality of education in their respective districts, other than subjecting learners to national annual examinations.
Dr Muganga said once UNEB exams are scrapped, parents who have been purchasing grades will now start looking at seeking competencies for their children.
He observed that schools that have been ranked as the best, have attracted crowds of applicants, who have in turn endured school fees hikes as they search for what UNEB has labelled as the best grades.
Dr Muganga also recommended to the Commission that boarding schools, which he termed as paid for prisons where evil happens, should be abolished so that learners can study from schools within their communities.
Filbert Baguma, the secretary general of the Uganda National Teachers Union, backed Dr Muganga’s arguments, saying the current education system doesn’t help learners to think on their own, other than focusing on the exams.
Baguma also described boarding schools as torture centres, adding that children should be taken to such schools when they have some level of understanding.
