Passing exams has long been a big deal in Uganda. In recent years, however, it has become even more of a big deal, so much so that to some parents it matters little what their children learn at school, or whether they learn anything at all. The important thing is that they should pass their exams and pass with a high score.

The obsession with exam results has had several effects. One is the rapid increase in the number of parents seeking to enrol their children in schools with a reputation for passing many learners. These are schools that register high pass rates, with few pupils and students performing badly or failing.

Their popularity has in turn pushed other schools to strive to emulate them and ensure that their charges also pass in large numbers.

The decision by the print media to splash photos of the “best” students on their front pages and to dedicate many more pages over several days to exam stories, has only intensified the competition and the desire by every private school owner to ensure that their school features prominently. This, many do by hook or by crook.

There are numerous stories of fraudulent activity centred around school owners and managers doing all they can to ensure that their charges pass well in order to keep the numbers flowing in to enrol and to preserve their reputation for “excellence.”

The actual results of these manoeuvres eventually come out at university when students who register for degree courses begin to struggle almost as soon as they sit in class.

Suddenly students who qualify to study demanding subjects such as law on the basis of having passed their high school exams with flying colours, prove unable to write legibly, let alone engage in a coherent conversation in English. Such is the dismal quality of some students that a number of universities are considering insisting that prospective students sit pre-entry exams through which they can provide proof of their actual abilities.

Of course, not every school with an established record of enabling their learners to pass in large numbers does so through fraudulent means. Some have opted for “creative” approaches to teaching. A common one entails subjecting learners to easily one of the most gruelling teaching regimes in the world.

It involves not only denying learners a chance to stay at home and rest after schools officially close for term breaks, but also to relax on weekends. When they are not at school enduring “holiday teaching,” they may be at home or at teachers’ homes undergoing “coaching,” all in the name of enabling them to “complete the syllabus” and prepare them to pass exams.

There are many issues here. They range from denying learners much-needed rest and recuperation, to forcing parents to enrol their children for holiday learning programmes that some would rather not have their children attend. However, those who keep their child at home do so at great risk. Children who are kept at home miss out on those parts of the syllabi that are covered during “holiday study.”

Much of this amounts to essentially illegal activity. It is contrary to official guidelines set by the Ministry of Education. School owners, managers and their boards of directors have, nonetheless, happily ignored them, charging parents and guardians exorbitant fees in addition to the fortunes they pay for term-time teaching.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has simply ignored the issue, seemingly happy to turn a blind eye to a complex problem they probably lack the capacity to tackle. Enter Kampala Capital City Authority with its no-nonsense administration.

The good people at City Hall have sensibly decided not to tolerate this illegality in the name of allowing school owners to make money and teachers to supplement their meagre incomes. KCCA has banned teaching outside the official educational calendar in all schools located in areas under its jurisdiction.

According to media reports, head teachers of offending public schools have been put on notice: They will be fired. As for private schools, they will be closed and the offending teachers arrested.

While some educationists support KCCA’s move to prevent infringement by school owners and managers on their learners’ right to rest, others are reportedly bitter and are already hatching new ways of carrying on with their illegal practices in order to make an extra buck for themselves.

A key question is which side parents, obsessed as some are with ensuring that their children pass exams, will come down on. Early indications point to KCCA agents busting weekend coaching sessions with the help of parents who objected to being compelled to enrol their children, some as young as six, for holiday studies, but who previously felt powerless to resist.

Whether such parents will add up to a critical mass and help topple the tyranny of holiday study and exam coaching remains to be seen. In the meantime, however, KCCA has shown once again that whatever reasons a government ministry, department or agency may want to give for not enforcing standards or laws or even implementing policy, at the end of the day it boils down to choice.

Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is a Kampala- and Kigali-based researcher and writer on politics and public affairs. E-mail: [email protected]