Uganda – Top schools raise S. 5 entry points

Top schools yesterday moved to stiffen competition as they announced cut-off points that will leave many hopeful Senior Four leavers out in a selection exercise that kicks off today.

Schools such as St Mary’s College Kisubi, King’s College Budo, Namilyango College, Nabisunsa Girls, Gayaza High School, St Mary’s Kitende and Mt St Mary’s Namagunga said they would not take anyone above Aggregate 12 and 16 for boys and girls respectively.

Last year, some of these schools accepted students with Aggregate 19. Most of them posted more candidates in Grade One than they did last year.

For example, St Mary’s Kitende, London College of St Lawrence all had its candidates pass in Division One.

This means if many candidates return to their former schools for A-level, it would make it harder for new comers to gain admission as they would need to have better grades.

About 2,000 head teachers across the country will flock Kampala International University main hall this morning for the two-day selection exercise.

Mr. Godfrey Atwine, the director of studies at Kings College Budo, said to keep their academic standard up, they will only take boys with Aggregate 11 and girls with 13.

“We have not received the official selection sheets from the Ministry [of Education], but basing on experience, we can’t go beyond Aggregate 13. We believe it helps us cut on the numbers and maintain quality services,” he said by telephone yesterday.

Mr. Charles Kaziba, the head teacher, Busoga College Mwiri, said they would admit candidates with Aggregate 8 to 20.

A selection committee official, who spoke to Daily Monitor on condition of anonymity, yesterday said although the number of candidates who scored better grades had gone up, most top schools have between 100 to 150 vacancies but received close to 2,000 first choices.

According to UCE results released recently, a total of 284,022 candidates passed the examinations compared to 261,438 in 2013. Source: Pesa Times