Kampala Standard Primary School – Kyanja is the only school in the country that registered a single-digit performance in the just-released results of the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE). All the school’s candidates scored grade one and the Head Master (HM) Mr. Simon Mugaaju attributes the performance to a number of unique interventions by the school’s administration including the decision to adopt the Young Engineers STEM programme which augmented the children’s innovative and creative minds to pass the exams. We interviewed him and below are the excerpts:
MediaScape News: Congratulations on this milestone. What was your performance like?
HM: Thank you very much. We registered a single-digit performance and all our pupils got a grade of one. This is the best performance of that category in the country. By single digit, we mean every child scored below Aggregate 10.
MediaScape News: This is fantatstic. What do you attribute this to?
HM: We had small numbers in each stream and this enabled teachers to concentrate on each and every child for maximum output. Besides this, we collaborated with several high-end schools in the US that helped our children acquire critical reasoning skills. Particularly, we teamed up with Young Engineers Uganda which is locally based but with an international footprint.
MediaScape News: What is this programme about?
HM: Young Engineers is a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) co-curricular programme that inspires children to embrace science and technology at a very young age. They use a LEGO and Robotics curriculum to enable children to acquire such skills as critical thinking, innovative thinking, problem-solving, etc. These skills were critical especially during lessons such as Maths and Science. No wonder they all performed well in these two. In others, a creative and innovative mindset helped. This program was very critical and added value to the children’s understanding of their academic challenges during the PLE exams.
MediaScape News: Specifically how did it help the children in Math and Science?
HM: At Young Engineers, they believed in engaging our students’ education processes while developing their learning skills. They understood that every child had a different technique for learning and retaining information. They also appreciated the fact that making learning fun is the lowest common denominator for successful performance in complicated subjects such as Math and Science. Theirs was a hands-on curriculum, which combined education and entertainment, creating a unique “edutainment” method while also breaking down Maths and Science concepts in a practical and entertaining way.
MediaScape News: What is your last message?
HM: I appeal to parents who still had doubts about school to enroll for the New Year. Applications are available at our offices in Kyanja. Let them come and try our unique model which produced excellent results as you have seen.