Schools explain rise in fees

By Innocent Anguyo, Vivian Agaba, Clare Muhindo and Jacqueline Emodek

MANY top schools across the country have raised their entry school fees for senior five, compared to previous years.

Speaking at the ongoing senior five selection exercise in Kampala International University on Thursday, George Andama, the head teacher of Mvara S.S in Arua says they were forced to raise the school fees by 10% to shield the school against inflation.

However, Andama and other head teachers of the tops schools encourage parents not to be put off by the relatively higher entry fees, saying school fees will exponentially dropdown in the second term.

New Vision established that different schools charge differently for additional requirements other than tuition such as uniforms, sweaters and sports attires.

Patrick Male, the head teacher of Kings College Buddo, for example says he imports uniforms hence raising his fees unlike other schools that rely on local materials.

Most of the top schools across the country have equally their hiked cut-off points for admission.

Most head teachers who took part in yesterday's senior five selection exercise attributed the hike in cut-offs to improved performance in last year's UCE and overwhelming demand for quality education in top whilst few school.

"Some schools are very popular that they get applications from many students far more than they can take and this raises the cut-off points for such schools.

Schools that receive few applications tend to have lower cut-off points," said Francis Eboko, the Head Teacher of St. Peters College Tororo.

Many head teachers are complaining that the failure of Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) to expedite the issuance of accurate results for Technical Drawing (TD) has made it hard for them to give students combinations with the subject.

Results for TD initially issued by UNEB on Tuesday February 3 were erroneous. "We shall admit students for TD based on their performance in mock and other tests other than the final examinations," said Andama.

However, Aisha Hajjara, the deputy head teacher of Masaka S.S says she believes UNEB will issue accurate results in time for schools to admit students for combinations with TD before the reporting date senior five.

Martin Omagor, the chairman of the overall selection committee says they will go ahead with the selection exercise as they await UNEB's issuance of the accurate TD results.

Last year, 309,899 students sat for the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations.

Students will report for senior five two weeks after the selection exercise concludes.