Mary Mutende, the Commissioner for Private Schools at the Ministry of Education, has ordered the suspension of the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) registration centre number for Seroma Christian High School in Mukono district.
In the letter dated May 28 2024, addressed to UNEB, the commissioner indicates that the school allegedly terminated students in Senior Four and Six due to poor academic performance and low grades.
According to the commissioner, she did not find the school’s reason for suspension convincing because the new curriculum focuses more on building skills rather than just getting good grades.
The directive to suspend the UNEB Centre Number comes after the school’s resident director- Amelia Kyambadde and the head teacher, to implement a decision made during a meeting at the Ministry Of Education.
Initially, the commissioner called a meeting after receiving a complaint from a parent of one of the expelled students.
The meeting attended by all parties resolved that the Christian school readmitted all the students who had been expelled and allowed them to sit for their UNEB exams at the school (Seroma).
The ministry’s intervention comes after a parent raised a concern about the student being expelled due to poor performance despite paying the registration fees to the school.
It came to light that the school administration had also planned to have the ill-fated students sit for their exams at another school.
Amid that confusion, the ministry also discovered that over 100 students had been intentionally dismissed for the same reason.
Despite the resolution made during the meeting, the school administration deliberately declined to reverse their decision regarding the student’s expulsion.
However, starting this week, parents whose children were expelled, have been contacting the commissioner, reporting that their children were being denied entry into the school.
In trying to follow up on the matter with the school, the commissioner says the school director and the head teacher refused to take her calls and eventually blocked her number to frustrate her motive.
“This is an act of impunity on the part of the Director clearly showing that the terminated learners were not going to be considered as earlier agreed in the meeting of 25th May 2024,” the letter addressed to the UNEB Executive director indicates in parts.
The letter also indicates that the director’s action is punishable under the provisions of the law, as they deprive the learners of the opportunity to advance to the next level of education.
However, this inflicts pain, psychological torture, and financial loss on both learners and parents.
To support parents and the learners amid this dilemma, it was decided that Seroma Christian High School should not access registration for any of its learners until all the expelled students are readmitted.
“…request you to temporarily Block the UNEB Registration Centre Number of Seroma Christian High School Mukono, until they obtain and present a clearance letter to you from the office of the undersigned concerning the above issue. To inform you that this act sabotage’s Ministry and UNEB plan of fully implementing the newly approved Lower Secondary Curriculum,” Mutende instructed.
In a conversation with the school director, Amelia Kyambadde, she expressed strong resentment towards the ministry for leaking information about the school to the press.
“Tell me how you accessed this information. I call the PS and the Commissioner for an explanation. We handled that matter at the ministry and it was resolved.” Kyambadde noted.
However, our investigations and information from the affected students and parents indicate that the school refused to take them back after collecting large sums of money. The school still insists on transferring the students to another school.
Still, we are yet to confirm with UNEB whether it implemented the instructions as the Spokesperson Janifer Kalule has been not responding to calls.
Education authorities in Mukono district, led by District Education Officer (DEO) Rashid Kikomeko, confirmed receiving the communication from the ministry and promised to ensure the school heads comply with the directive.
“My team is yet to take action, however, it is bad for a Christian school to act weird. This practice is common within several other schools and it needs to stop. Let schools plan according to the standards within their capacity to have better results.” Kikomeko noted.
This website has discovered that Seroma, along with many other schools, has a history of admitting a high number of students and readmitting underperforming candidates in other schools.
The strategy involves collecting substantial UNEB registration fees, and then finding schools with lower registration fees to re-register the students labelled as poor performers, all without parental consent.
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