By Conan Businge
The formal selection of Senior Five students starts today at Wonder-World Kansanga. Secondary schools are likely to relax their entry points. The Senior Five students are expected to report on March 4 for their first term.
Several headteachers interviewed on Wednesday said they did not expect the Senior Five cut-off points to go up due to a decline in performance in last year’s national examinations.
Out of the 262,987 candidates who sat for Senior Four last year, only 18,826 (7.2%) passed in division one, compared to 22,630 (8.5%) in 2011.
A total of 43,372 (16.6%) candidates passed in division two, compared to 71,082 (18.2%) in the previous year.
However, the top performing schools in are unlikely to relax cut-off points due to the large number of star students who are yearning to join them.
The schools expected to maintain high cut-off points include St. Mary’s Namagunga, Gayaza High School, Kitende, King’s College Budo and Namugongo.
Others are St. Mary’s Kisubi, Namilyango College, Nabisunsa Girls, Turkish Light Academy, Trinity College Nabbingo, Ndejje SS, Kawempe Muslim, Ntare, Naalya and Seeta schools.
The top schools also require a student to have scored a distinction in each of the three subjects he/she intends to study in Senior Five. Ordinarily, a candidate should have obtained a credit six in each of the three subjects which form a subject combination for a course in Senior Five.
Students joining Senior Five this year will offer a maximum of three (3) principal subjects, one subsidiary and General Paper. This will form a basis for admission to the universities.
The Senior Five students doing science combinations or combinations having economics, must do sub-mathematics as a subsidiary. However, those doing mathematics as a principle subject will be exempted from sub-mathematics. A student offering arts subject combination or mathematics will be required to do information and communication technology.
For the students to be admitted to schools under the Universal Secondary Education programme, they must have passed in either division one, two or three.
