University quota admissions changed

By Conan Businge          
                     
DISTRICTS with higher student populations will be allocated a higher number of candidate slots beginning this year's admission in public Universities under the quota system.

This new resolution by Government will effective this year replace the system where all districts were previously allocated eight slots under the quota admissions.

"We have taken this decision for the betterment of university admissions on Government sponsorship. This new arrangement kicks off with immediate effect, beginning with this year's public universities' admissions," education Minister Jessica Alupo told New Vision.

This means that each district will initially be allocated five slots, and the balance of the slots will be distributed on the basis of each districts' populations, according to documents obtained from the education ministry. The same decision has also been communicated to the Public Universities Joint Admissions Board (PUJAB) and Uganda National Examinations Board.

The decision was taken by the education ministry in consultation with the Office of the Prime Minister.

A case in point will be a district like Kampala with an estimated 1.7m people, which will be allocated 23 slots; Wakiso with an estimated 1.3m people will get 18 slots. This is compared to Kalangala with 66,300 people, Buvuma with 55,300 people and Buliisa with 77,100 people- all having being six slots each.

In the past few years, Government has been allocating eight slots to each district. The number of students allocated slots on quota system per district, has been reducing over years due to the increasing number of districts, save for this year.

In 2005/06, there were 56 districts and each received 16 slots. The following year, the districts rose to 81 and each got 11 slots. Last year, there were 112 districts in the country and each got 8 slots.

Earlier on, there had been five proposed options, among which Government chose one option to implement.  

Other options on the table were consideration based on having districts with high enrolment in secondary getting more students on the quota, or alternatively considering districts with highest total enrolment in primary and secondary being offered more slots.

The third option was to have districts with high numbers of students on merit contributing less, or no single student on the quota system. But all these three options, including the one of equal distribution of slots; have all been shelved.  

The President Yoweri Museveni has a number of times been advocating for districts with high populations being offered more slots.

There are 896 students who are always given Government scholarships in every academic year in public universities, on the basis on the district quota system. In this case, all districts take an equal share of the slots available. Quota system scholarships take care of bright but unprivileged students who are left out on merit or general admissions.

The Government reserves 75% of 4,000 Government scholarships, translating into to 3,000 places for programs critical to national development. The balance of 25% of the scholarships, translating into 1,000 slots; are allocated to the district quota system (896 slots), 40 for talented sports persons, and 64 for students with special needs.

The district Quota System of administration started in 2005/2006 to address the inequitable cases to university education by students hailing from various districts. This was because the selection of students sponsored by Government was primarily based on academic meritocracy.

The situation attracted considerable criticism from members of the public who argued that admission on merit only considered students from rich families, who go to high fees paying schools. Such schools, as a fact have competent teachers and have so many resources at their disposal. This meant it was unfair for privileged students to openly compete with those from disadvantaged rural areas.

The education and sports ministry was tasked with developing a system would take care of the eligible candidates from all the districts. It was also supposed to target programs critical to national development and social transformation with emphasis on science technology and mathematics.

This was on the directive of President Yoweri Museveni through the Prime Minister, to coordinate the relevant ministries.