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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2025
Education stakeholders in Madi-West Nile diocese are emphasizing Christian religious education to curb the growing moral decadence in schools.
“In schools, children are not close to spiritual matters, this is why there is a lot of hooliganism. As it is said the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” noted Rev Canon Afayoa, the chairman diocesan Examinations board.
This was at the release of the mid-year examinations for primary schools and the lower classes at the Madi-West Nile diocese headquarters.
A total of 125 primary schools participated in the 2025 mid-year examinations including catholic founded schools in Vurra archdeaconry.
The tests are set to the national standard by senior teachers who are also seasoned examiners with the Uganda National Examinations Board.
The aim is to assess the existing gaps in the level of teaching and preparation and provide for improvements.
“Education is a process that calls for teamwork of teachers, parents and the children. Some of the poor performance could be due to individual weaknesses of a child. It could also be due to learning gap as an institution. For example you find a child getting 87% and another getting 7% and yet they are in the same class and in the same school,” noted Robert Ezama, the diocesan inspector of Schools.
He said the examinations are meant to test the teaming ability of the key people involved in the preparation of the children and reorient the mindset of the people on how to improve performance.
It is also to wake the schools up ahead of the national examinations. The testing of all the four subjects at the primary seven is also a shift away from the old practice of only testing Christian religious education which the board has been doing since 2005.
Ezama however regretted that some schools declined to participate in the diocesan examinations.
Many of them cited expenses and preferred test papers from cheaper sources while other schools such as Driwala primary school and Jiako primary school are grappling with ownership disputes.
Ushindi primary school emerged the best performing schools in the overall rating, with most of the rewards such as bedsheets and cash money going to pupils there.
The diocesan officials commended especially schools in Vurra Archdeaconry where even catholic founded schools embraced the examination.
“Education is a service that does not discriminate between religion, tribe or race,” Godfrey Nasser, emphasized.
Nasser was embraced by the exceptional performance of some pupils who scored over 80% in subjects like mathematics that are generally feared. He called on the parents and teachers to give their best to support the children in their learning.
