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By Elizabeth Namazzi
and Carol Kasujja
THE performance of teachers is best judged by the number of students passing with high grades. When the Uganda National Examinations Board releases results, attention is paid to students who excel with flying colours.
The teachers who teach and mentor them to score high grades often go unnoticed.
Sunday Vision identified some of the teachers who produced big numbers of students scoring distinction one and two, and credit three in a survey based on a random sample of O’Level results released last week.
Distinction one represents marks from 80% and above, while distinction two is from 75% to 79%.
Credit three represents 70% to 74%. Students who got credit 4, 5 and 6 scored marks from 60% to 69%, 55% to 59% and 50% to 54%, respectively.
Pass seven and eight represents marks from 45% to 49% and 40%-44%, respectively. F9, which means failure, covers marks from 0% to 39%.
When contacted, the teachers cited team work, frequent tests and completion of the syllabus and sufficient revision as some of the factors that boosted performance in the subjects they teach.
Other factors include mentoring and encouraging students to enjoy the subjects, including those perceived to be hard like mathematics.
“We prepare the girls right from S1 by marketing the subject to them. We concentrate on the weak students and tell them mathematics is passable, even for girls” Maryhill High School’s Aisha Asiimwe explained. “We also tell them how useful mathematics is for their future.”
Thirty-nine of her students got distinction one, 31 distinction two while the lowest score got credit six.
Teachers who produced student’s with high grades include:
Joseph Bernald Kyam¬badde, Sseta High school (main campus)
The best done subject was Lu¬ganda with all the 24 students, who sat for the exam scoring distinction one.
“We worked as a team. We completed our syllabus in time. I remember I kept on encour¬aging my students to try out a number of questions from differ¬ent schools,” he said.
Theresa Oluka, Gayaza High School
At the popular girls’ school, Lit¬erature in English was the best performed. Out of the 186 stu¬dents 76 got distinction one and 46 had distinction two.
“My students were bright and willing to study. The positive at¬titude they had towards Litera¬ture gave encouraged me to give them my best,” he said. “I managed to make those grades with the help of my fel¬low teachers. By first term I was through with the syllabus,” Olu¬ka explained.
Joyce Kigonya & Annet Kasaija, St Mary’s Col¬lege Kisubi
Literature was the best done subject at this lake-side Catho¬lic-founded school. Out of 157 students who sat for it 90 got distinctions.
“Being a boy’s school, it was very hard for us to get such distinctions because boys think Literature is for girls,” the two teachers pointed out.
“We advised them that even if they did not like the subject, at least they should work for good grades to pass highly.”
Twaha Ssemogere, Kibuli SSS
The best done subject was Biolo¬gy. They were 182 students who sat for biology 12 got distinction one and 26 had distinction two.
“Since third term is very short, I teach my students in time,” Ssemogere explained. “Serious work is in first term. In third term, we do a lot of revision, practical work and tests.”
Monica Arinaitwe, Mak¬erere College School
Biology was the best performed subject at the Makerere Univer¬sity based school.
“I finished my syllabus in time and grouped my students into discussion groups,” she said explaining how she helped her students pass.
“We did many practical les¬sons. Students had their own presentation on a weekly basis and we had early tests,” said Ari¬naitwe, who woke up some lazy students.
Sophie Kawesi, Namilyan¬go College
English was the best done sub¬ject. In a country where perform¬ance in the subject has drasti¬cally dropped, Kawesi managed to get all her student pass with distinction.
Out of the 179 students, 170 scored distinction one and nine had distinction two.
“To make such grades, I identi¬fied students who had problems with English. I gave them tutori¬als and extra work,” she said.
Samuel Buyinza, King’s college Buddo
The best done best was Math¬ematics. Out of 195 students, 60 got distinction one.
“I covered the syllabus in time. We went through a number of tests. I used to have career guid¬ance and counselling during my lessons,” Buyinza said.
“The students were taught to carry out research on their own and the school played a great role in making the grades.”
FredrickMbazira, Katikamu SDA
Geography was the best done best.
“We covered the syllabus in time. By second term, we were through,” Mbazira said. “We em¬phasized the compulsory num¬bers like photographic interpre¬tation, map work and distributed handouts of statistical numbers to every student.”
He said the students were given a booklet containing 100 questions and “by the end of the day everyone was in position to answer every question”.
“Every fortnight we could give a test on different topics which aided the students prepare for the final exam,” he said.
Venance Mwesigye, Ntare School
The best done subject was Mathematics.
“We concentrated on discus¬sion groups. Students were working with teachers,” Mwesi¬gye explained.
“We organised seminars and guided students on very many things. If I gave an exercise, I made sure I marked the exer¬cise so students could see their results and improve.”
Aisha Asiimwe, Maryhill High School, Mbarara
She has been described as a genius for making Mathematics simple for girls to pass with fly¬ing colours.
Maryhill recorded 39 students with distinction one and 31 stu¬dents with distinction two. The lowest mark in the subject was C6, and these were only 10 out of 184 students. Asiimwe taught the students from S.1.
“We prepare the girls right from S.1 by marketing the sub¬ject to them. We concentrate on the weak students and teld them Mathematics is passable, even for girls,” she explained. “We also told them how useful Math¬ematics is for their future.”
Richard Kanyerezi, Buge¬ma Seventh Day Advent¬ist Secondary School
The students passed history with 38 distinctions.
“We have always worked as a team. When one teacher fails in one area, we invite someone who is better in the subject,” he said. “We also invite teachers from other schools or organise to visit other schools to see how they teach.”
Dennis Katungye, Mary¬hill High School
Out of 184 students, 42 passed with distinction one 62 with dis¬tinction two in history. The rest scored credit three and credit four.
“There’s what we call drill¬ing, so we drill the students to the bone. We make sure there’s no topic a student has no idea about. We do a lot of research using several tools, including the internet,” Katungye said.
“Should I not understand something as a teacher, say a concept, I ask other teachers for help.”
Michael Ntakabimanze, Immaculate Heart Girls’ School Bushenyi
Out of 156 students, 17 students got distinction one in English, while 40 got distinction two. Of the 37 students of English Litera¬ture, 15 passed with distinction one and 14 with distinction two.
“We make sure they read and speak English while at school,”Ntakabimanze said.
Jolly Natukunda, St. Kag¬gwa, Bushenyi
Out of 40 students, 10 got dis¬tinctions while the rest got cred¬its in Fine Art. “We have continuous assess¬ment exercises which we com¬pile to get the final mark for each student,” she said. “This means that students have to do all the work without dodging, because they know they have to excel.”
Joseph Kiwanuka, St. Pe¬ter’s S.SNsambya
Out of 192 students, five got dis¬tinction one, 18 got distinction two and 40 got credit three in History.
“We do a lot of research and hold seminars where students discuss as we moderate,” Kiwan¬uka said. “We also have a com¬prehensive revision programme in third term.”
John Kisakye, Turkish Light Academy
Mathematics was the best done subject. They were 56 students who sat for the paper and 23 got distinction one.
“As a teacher I convinced my students that math was a very simple subject. Even those who were weak felt like they can pass it.” Kisakye said.
“I gave them examples from the previous class. I could tell them that since the previous class passed highly, then they were also going to make it.”
Alex Kyobe, Mengo SSS
Out of 483, they were 50 stu¬dents with distinctions in math¬ematics. “I managed to come up with such a large number of students with good grades by arranging seminars,” he said.
“We formed a club for math¬ematicians called ‘Club x’ and gave them home work for revision.”
Published on: Saturday, 6th February, 2010
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