By Wetondo Denis Julius
MBALE CITY
Social Studies (SST) has emerged as the most poorly performed subject in the just released 2025 Primary Leaving Examinations, with school heads in Mbale city attributing the trend to changes in the question setting, language complexity and challenges linked to the new competency based curriculum.
In separate interviews with eastnews reporter, Tumusiime Benjamin, the Director of Studies at Tower Primary School and Halima Nendeje, Head teacher Bugisu Junior School said although their schools registered commendable overall results, SST stood out as the weakest subject, reflecting a national trend.
According to Mr. Tumusime, the language used in the SST examination paper was particularly challenging for the candidates.
He explained that the questions were not direct and required deeper interpretation, so many pupils struggled with despite adequate preparation.
“The language used in setting SST is tricky and indirect. That affected many candidates countrywide not only our school,” Tumusime said.
In the same way, Ms. Halima Nendeje linked the poor performance in SST to the shift from the old curriculum to a competency based curriculum, which emphasizes understanding rather than memorization.
She noted that SST was among the first subjects to be fully aligned with the new approach, catching both learners and teachers unprepared.
“The setting and marking have changed. The leaners are assessed on the understanding not grammar or cramming. Many schools are still adjusting,” she said.
She further faulted the limited Government support in retraining teachers to handle the new curriculum effectively.
She adds that teachers only get information about changes in marking and setting through colleagues who participate in national marking exercise, leaving many schools unprepared.
‘‘Workshops are few, expensive, and mostly held in Kampala. Schools upcountry struggle to facilitate teachers to attend,” Nendeje said.
Despite the SST setback, both schools registered strong overall performance in PLE. Tower primary school, registered 97 candidates and got 84 in division one and 13 in Division 2, with the best getting four aggregates.
Bugisu Junior registered 16 candidates and 9 obtained first grade and the rest passed in second Division.
