Makerere's Law pre-entry exams expose UNEB

By Stephen C. Kaheru

LAST month, Makerere University subjected applicants to the Bachelor of Laws programme to pre-entry exams. 

The exams, which attracted over 1,600 aspiring learned friends, marked an unusual step in the university’s admission criteria.

The assessment was designed to gauge the abilities of prospective law students. The results reflect a startling performance curve. Students from secondary schools that have usually constituted the bulk of the law class did not perform as well as they do in national exams. 

Applicants with humble grades at A-level outdid the stars of Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB). This scenario exposed weaknesses in UNEB exams. Concerns have been voiced about the country’s education system being largely exam-oriented.

In the early 1990’s, the idea of continuous assessment in lieu of exams was mooted but doesn’t seem to have gathered sufficient steam.

Attainment driven schooling, exacerbated by massive enrolment and the proliferation of private schools, undermines the development of individual skills in favour of distinct grades. Education’s purpose lies in widening rather than limiting an individual’s horizons.

Universal Primary Education, Universal Secondary Education and universities have a role in supporting younger generations discover their potential. The grade-oriented culture skews the teaching in most schools towards aiding students to score past a given mark as opposed to nurturing the entire spectrum of the individuals’ abilities.

It is the nurturing of creative expression, ingenuity, critical thinking, self-awareness, exploration and values that will put school going Ugandans in good stead for a future of ever-increasing global competitiveness.

The results of the Makerere University pre-entry exams are certainly reason to raise our antenna. Even as we study the trend, the congruence between UNEB grades and the performance of students outside national exams speaks a lot about what we can do to support an environment of genuine learning.

Ultimately, Uganda’s 17 years or so of schooling will be judged by how well they facilitate progressive discovery of individual promise.

The writer works with the Association for the Advancement of Higher Education and Development (AHEAD)