The Relationship Between Pre-University Schooling and University Grades in Uganda

Universities are concerned with selecting students with the highest potential for successfully pursuing university education. For universities in Uganda, this potential is, apparently, sufficiently indicated by student performance in the national examinations at the end of the advanced level (A’Level) of secondary school. However, performance trends at A’Level indicate that there is a wide variation in performance between the different subjects offered at A’Level, as well as between different schools. Further, since the national examinations represent such high stakes, there are reports of a heavy emphasis on teaching and learning strategies aimed at maximising pass rates, which is further accompanied by a tendency to choose the A’Level subjects that consistently exhibit high pass rates. Since university selection depends almost solely on scores in the A’Level national examinations, it was of interest to investigate the extent to which these university entry scores predicted university grades after taking account of the various school and student level factors present in the pre-university schooling system. The main student level variables included in the study were student age and socioeconomic status (SES), while school level variables concerned ownership (public vs. private), gender balance (single-sex vs. coeducational), whether or not schools provided boarding facilities, and finally whether or not they run the Universal Secondary Education programme (USE). The USE is a government funded programme that provides tuitionfree education to students, and can be accessed at selected public and private secondary schools.