Kampala, Uganda: Victoria University Vice Chancellor Dr. Lawrence Muganga has applauded the Ministry of Education’s bold move to phase out the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), describing the national exam as a long-standing source of anxiety and wasted potential among Uganda’s children.
While appearing on NTV Uganda recently, Dr. Muganga said that recent government education reforms, including the new guidelines hinting at the elimination of PLE, mark a transformative shift in the country’s education system.
“Yes, we are doing badly, okay, but I am also beginning to see signs that things are beginning to [change],” said the educationist, referencing a recent education white paper by Hon. Amanya Mushega that informed the new Ministry guidelines.
“They are saying that now we are transitioning ourselves to never administering a national exam called PLE. That is amazing.”
Dr. Muganga argued that the PLE has caused “untold damage” to learners by branding children as failures at the tender ages of 11, 12, or 13. “Do you know how much anxiety, how much damage that exam has caused to a Ugandan child? How much it has classified them as a failure?” he said. “That is wasting human capital because of something called a national exam.”
He added that Uganda’s education stakeholders must be commended for taking such bold steps toward educational reform.
“When we start speaking that language, that moving on, we are doing away with [PLE], we must give them credit,” he emphasized.
The Ministry of Education’s latest policy direction, which is still under discussion, seeks to transition away from exam-based filtering and toward continuous assessment and skills-based learning at the primary level.
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