Why Ugandan students are detoriating in quality. Having taught students coming from high school for the last four years, I have observed that the quality of students joining universities is detoriating. This is why... the current focus on UNEB results as the only basis for assessing and grading students could be more damaging than we may be prepared to believe. Teachers are focussing on getting students pass exams and not on getting students to learn to think. Most students find learning unexciting and therefore only concentrate on passing exams. Since the number of students that will join university does alot of marketing for especially private schools, teachers will walk any mile to get students to pass exams. Their focus is entirely on exams. In some schools, students study from monday to saturday from 5am to10pm wih only about 3 breaks of one hour each for lunch and dinner. This is so despite the fact it has been proven scientifically that the average maximum concentration or sustained attention of a person happens for only between 20-30 minutes and it starts reducing. How are these students being taught for over four hours? The situation has also not been helped by the fact that these students are not given opportunity to participate in non-academic recreational activities. In some schools, the authorities will enroll students who will play football, volleyball or basket ball. These are recruited specifically for that purpose. They are given scholarships just to play football for the school. These spend most of their time just doing that sport. In the end, the schools have to find a way to help them pass exams. Meanwhile those who are in the classrooms who are not considered sportsmen are de-motivated from taking part in the sports since there are those on full time employment as sports students. So you basically have students who are bored, and missing out on the extra soft skills and values that come with participating in other non academic community events. The focus on merely passing exams without helping students understand the concepts for life long learning could destroy our talented young people. We should re-think our assessment methods with a view to changing this current closed thinking methodology being applied in schools. Learning should be fun for students and not merely a forced exercise
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 08:00:43 +0000
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