Some former top-ranking schools that once put Acholi sub-region in the lime-light and produced professors, diplomats, ministers, doctors, and accountants, among other professionals have continued to register poor academic performance over the last four years. The schools include Sir Samuel Baker, Gulu High School, Kitgum High School, and Sacred Heart SS but in other side of the coin, St. Joseph’s College, Layibi (SJCL) seems to reawaken according to the recent released 2023 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) results.
The reality is that St. Joseph’s College, Layibi ranked 134th at the national level according to the released Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) results should not be compared with private schools. Layibi College is the only secondary school in Acholi sub-region which selects only first-grade pupils to have a chance to study in the great college at Ordinary level and they are eliminated in the course of their four years studies due to their poor academic results and discipline. St. Joseph’s College, Layibi had a total of 122 candidates who sat for the 2023 Uganda Certificate of Education, UCE which is examined by Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) and they got 99 first grade, 21 second grade and 2 third grade.
Check the number of government schools with the above number of first grades among the best 300 schools in the Uganda Certificate of Education, UCE results and that is when you will know Layibi College is a goat in this country. A government secondary school competing with private schools with good financing like Ocer Campion Jesuit College and St. John College, Gulu from the same region, what a great challenge ever since St. Joseph’s College, Layibi maintained its high academic record up to 2006 where 104 of their students passed in Division One. However, the performance has since declined.
Most of the government bodies are not up to the game. They do not do thorough checks and balances in the schools they are governing. This makes both the school administrators and teachers reluctant and most work are being done by the old student associations who fear to see the school they once attended perish.
The 2023 Uganda Certificate of Education, UCE candidates sat from 3, 8089 examination centres. Of these candidates, 118, 633 (32.5%) were Universal Secondary Education (USE) beneficiaries. The number of male candidates registered was 180, 471 (49.5%) and that of females was 183, 998 (50.5%).This account for the fact that in recent years, UNEB has been registering significantly more girls than boys in both Primary Leaving Examinations and Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) therefore this means that single-sex secondary schools like St. Joseph’s College, Layibi need to double efforts and select more students to sit for final exams.
Over 340, 000 candidates progress to post-UCE according to UNEB and Layibi College produced 122 students therefore 2023 was a good year for the Clarions. The boys have their old boys in the LACOBA proud. Layibi College Old Boys Association (LACOBA) play a pivotal role as far as administration of the school is concerned as they contribute revenue so as the school offer scholarships for sportsmen and they buy text books so as to facilitate education process at the Clarion.
The government in 1997 and 2007 introduced Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) respectively purposely to improve the education status of its population but seems this policy is not favoring traditional schools in Acholi sub-region and this has caused fear among the stakeholders that the region could as well miss out on employment opportunities both in private and public sectors.
https://odongrichard.wordpress.com/2024/02/15/st-josephs-college-layibi-will-always-be-the-clarions/
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