ALDRINE NSUBUGA SNR: Why should PLE, UCE and UACE results continue to make headline news?

The anxiety is over. It’s now about pass slips, congratulations, and party popping. It’s time to show off – the winning schools, excelling pupils, proud parents, and sponsors. Even the media is fighting for space to be seen to be the ones ‘breaking’ the most ‘important’ news in the country.

Headmasters and headmistresses are now making speeches and releasing statements. They are proud to have delivered. Behind the scenes, parents have booked venues and service providers – celebrating victory is the next logical thing.

Yet, amidst the euphoria, there are learners and parents who are crestfallen. The mood is somber. The feeling of dejection is overwhelming. They didn’t get the 4,5 aggregate and so they fear for the future.

They switch off the television as soon as PLE results are flashed all over. They have switched the phones off too. Their parents had told them that if they didn’t get the ‘I have made it mark’ they would be considered a failure and disappointment to the family. Meanwhile, the 4, 5 aggregate learners are rubbing it in. Making calls incessantly, texting continuously, and requesting for ‘catch up’ meetings at Acacia Mall or CJs Kamwokya with their buddies.

The talk is about Budo, Gayaza, Namugongo, Green Hill, Namagunga. It’s time to show off. The parents too are doing their thing to show how privileged they are to have a child who ‘has got a 4’ They are consulting relatives and family on how best to organize the congratulatory party for this child who inherited their DNA. There’s a thick line between success and failure. So they think.

The reality in Uganda though is entirely different. At the top where every learner is aiming to reach; academic excellence has modelled moral deviants. They have been called ‘brilliant’ throughout their lives from their school days but their opulence is a result of corruption, thuggery, blackmail and every related vice. They plunder national resources and use politics as a means to an end.

Jobs are based on nepotism, orders from above or who knows who. No longer can we tell the brilliant child who got a 4 in PLE from the dense one who got a 20. In fact, the ones who hold the real economic means and power it’s said, know very little about algebra.

Meanwhile, the schools calling press conferences to show their might are doing it for business. It’s advertising. Ignorant parents and learners have no idea. You wonder why it’s important for the ‘best’ schools to be splashed all over when that has never translated into jobs, careers etc…At the end of the day, today’s Uganda is about the individual hustle and readiness to fight for survival not the school one went to.

And so I ask the question – what is the motivation for the country’s media to splash PLE , UCE, UACE results all over? Where is the good news? And to the schools, I ask the question – what is the difference today between a child who goes to St.Mary’s Kitende and the one who goes to Hillside Secondary? And to the parents – why do you think that a child who gets a 4 is brighter (more brilliant) than a child who gets a 10? To Uganda – what do we consider as career success today?

I have said it many times here; for me, my greatest achievement in life is having a granddaughter, Atarah. Take away everything else and leave me with that. That’s my legacy. What is yours?

#my2pence