NO PROBLEM WITH MAKERERE UNIVERSITY ORGANIZING ENTRANCE EXAMS

UNEB ought to be disappointed that the School of Law sets entrance examinations for students joining after HSC.  In fact more schools and departments ought to do the same.  The problem is corruption in Uganda and in this case UNEB.  It is common knowledge that for a number of years, final examination papers have been leaking, and schools involved in this practice are booming as the children they admit have an assurance of passing highly.  The Government is equally to blame for the continued cheating in final examinations more so, University entrance.  They refused to listen to sense to phase out the unfair Government sponsorship scheme where many of the beneficiaries are children from well to do families and some of them beneficiaries of cheating in final examinations.  It is common experience for students joining courses like Statistics; they are openly told that if they don’t feel competent at Mathematics, they should not venture taking the course.  UNEB should therefore blame themselves that Schools like Law are giving entrance examinations.  This is against the background that the examination cheats were coming up with high passes which were not sustainable on starting the course, and the entrance examination is sorting the matter if some schools don’t follow up to get the questions leaked to them, hence defeating the purpose for which the entrance exams are meant.    

Uneb opposes Makerere pre-entry examinations

By PATIENCE AHIMBISIBWE & EMMANUEL MULONDO

Posted  Tuesday, March 18  2014 at  02:00

Uganda National Examinations Board has dismissed the use of pre-entry tests as a basis to access university admissions, saying they do not necessarily pick out the best and deserving students.

Uneb’s latest position on the sticky matter followed a report by a Makerere University don, Dr Robert Wamala, that sought to explain whether the examinations body’s results predict competencies required to excel academically at the law school.

However, Dr Saverio Pido, the Uneb head of research and data, said student performance in institutions of higher learning depends on various issues, including former secondary schools, the curriculum and the processes they go through while training.

Dr Pido said pre-entry exams were an additional cost that could lock out potential law students who may not have resources to come to Kampala where the exam is administered.

“There is need for the law school and the senate to revisit the use of pre-entry exams as the sole procedure for selection and admission to law school.”

“We should use A-level results as it has been before,” Dr Pido said at the launch of the report.

The lead researcher, Dr Wamala, a lecturer at the School of Statistics and Planning said his focus was on student’s performance before and after the introduction of pre-entry exams in 2012 at the law school. 

In his conclusion, Dr Wamala said the outcome of the admission test does not predict competencies required to excel academically in law school. “The problem is not Uneb results but the guidelines for admission to law school. The outcome of the admission test does not predict competencies required to excel academically in law school. We question why the school depends on the outcome of the test to admit students,” Dr Wamala said.

Mr Herbert Batamye Kyobe, Makerere University head of pre-entry exams and mature age, told the researcher that it was too early to judge the effects of pre-entry exams.

However, Prof Fredrick Juuko, a former dean of the School of Law and a senior lecturer yesterday defended their action saying: “That measure (pre-entry exams) was taken after a study by the law school. So the conclusion of that (current) study is premature since the scheme just started two years ago. Actually no students through that scheme have completed the law course.” 

Prof Juuko also dismissed the notion that academic performance in relevant subjects at A-level was being made secondary by the pre-entry exam scheme. “We have a cut off. We insist you must have the two principle passes but we also insist you must pass the pre-entry for aptitude,” he said.