KAMPALA: Commercial Examinations Bureaus in Uganda are counting losses after The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoE & S) on Wednesday banned schools from buying exams from the private assessors.
The ministry in a directive to the Chief Administrative Officers, Town Clerks and Director KCCA says the examination bureaus are not licensed to operate in schools and do not have any mandate from the ministry to assess its learners.
It instructs head teachers and teachers to stop the practice immediately.
“This act is not only unprofessional but also detrimental to the children’s future,” a circular signed on behalf of the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Alex Kakooza reads in part.
It says many schools have taken the advantage of examination bureaus to exploit parents by charging them fees for daily tests, daily homework, mid-term tests, holiday tests, beginning of term tests, weekly tests and end of term tests. “This practice gives teachers no freedom to assess the learner’s capacity, following a syllabus,” it says.
The circular urges teachers to revert to, “professional way of following the curriculum, writing schemes of work, and derive lesson plans from there for conducting effective lessons, that will help learners acquire knowledge and skills for personal and national development.”
District and municipal education officers, inspectors of schools, coordinating centre tutors and others have been instructed to ensure that no private examination bureaus operate in schools.
However, Investigation by Eagle Online revealed some teachers as well as head teachers run the private examination bureaus.
