The Ministry of Education and Sports has extended the deadline for submitting the learner profile data to the Education Management Information System-EMIS. In a letter to all head teachers, principals, and university vice-chancellors, Dr. Jane Egua, the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education notes that the deadline had been extended to September 30.
This means the school has two more weeks to submit the required information. Although Dr. Egua didn’t give reasons for the extension, sources at the ministry indicate that many schools failed to upload the required information citing network challenges, and lack of equipment.
“Some schools, more so those in rural areas, had not sent even half of their learners. some of the reasons given for the delay are understandable and they have been advised on how they can work around with their respective local governments to finish the activities in the limited time available,” a source told our reporter.
In June this year, the ministry of education working with the National Identification and Registration Authority-NIRA rolled out a new countrywide registration for all learners at all levels of education, which will serve as baseline information for learner verification and issuance of National Identification Numbers-NINs.
In a recent interview, Patrick Zziwa, the Bukomansimbi District Education Officer noted that several schools had not yet finished the process before the second term closed. The fact that there are numerous students but few pieces of equipment made the task difficult. “Many schools lacked computers necessary for uploading the data. The district made the decision to establish coordination centers in each Subcounty, where every school will have access to computers,” Zziwa noted.
Margate Nabakooza, the headteacher at St. Joseph Primary School in Nansana Municipality, says that although her school had finished the procedure before the end of term two, they enrolled new learners who had not yet registered on the system.
“A significant portion of the students admitted this term, the majority of whom attended private schools, were not yet registered on the system. We have already requested a camera person from the municipal education office so that we can register them as well. We should be finished by the end of the week,” she said.
According to the Ministry of Education guidelines, a learner can only be registered once. When he changes schools he or she doesn’t need to be registered again but rather uses a computer-generated Learner Identification Number-LIN, which is linked to the parent’s National Identification Registration Authority records.
The Ministry has also requested secondary school headteachers who had previously submitted their S.1 and S.2 learner information in hardcopies or by email to use the extension to resubmit the information through the EMIS portal.
For S.1 and S.2 learners, the registration is critical since Uganda National Examination Board UNEB is expected to use the Learner identification numbers to collect their school-based evaluations as required in the new lower secondary curriculum.
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