Senior Five admission points raised

By Conan Businge, Pascal Kwesiga and Sylvia Nankya

SEVERAL schools all over the country have raised their admission points to Senior Five, ahead of the new term which will open on February 21. Top five schools, compared to only three last year, have set their entry points between 10 and 12 aggregate.

In the O’level certificate examinations, the best candidate scores aggregate 8 in eight subjects. This means that he must get a distinction one in each subject.

A candidate needs a credit six in the three subjects which form a subject combination for a course in Senior Five. But top schools demand a distinction in every subject in a combination.

Among the top schools, which hiked their entry points were Namugongo, Namilyango, Kitende, Ndejje, Kibuli, and Turkish Light College.

Budo, Kitende, Namilyango Namagunga, Kisubi, and Namagunga, are the schools with the highest entry points this year.

However, a handful of schools have maintained and few others have lowered their cut-off points.

For instance, Namagunga has maintained the same entry mark of 11 aggregate.

Schools like Budo, Gayaza and Nabisunsa have also maintained their last year’s cut-off points.

Apart from traditional government-aided schools, a number of privately-owned schools raised their entry points in the 221 randomly selected schools all over the country.

The selection exercise, which was chaired by assistant commissioner Francis Agula, and was officially opened by the director of basic and secondary education, Yusuf Nsubuga, will close today at Mandela National Stadium-Namboole.

The rise in entry points was attributed to the increase in the number of Senior Four candidates who were competing for slots in S.5. Cut-off points are determined by the number of candidates who apply to join a given school in relation to the vacancies available.

If the number of applicants is high, the school sets high cut-off points.

The number of S.5 applicants is high because of the pioneer Universal Secondary Education candidates.

There was a significant increase in the number of candidates from 218,056 to 264,928, although there was a slight decline in the number of students who passed in Division One.
Only 7.2% of the 258,196 passed in Division One compared to 7.6% of 212,497 students in 2009.
But only 82,720 students are likely to be admitted in government-aided secondary schools.
A statement by the education ministry’s permanent secretary, Francis-Xavier Lubanga, says Senior One and Five students will begin classes on February 21.
He clarified that students “who are not of the voting age or those who did not register at home, must remain at school.” The New Vision predicted that the cut-off mark would be stiffer than last year’s, because of the sharp increase in the number of bright students competing for slots in top schools. Normally, candidates prefer to rejoin their former schools for A’level, making it harder for new-comers.
Apart from S.5 students, the selection process also catered for technical institutes and primary teachers colleges.