Kitebi SS Uses Technology To Boost Student’s Attendance

KITEBI S.S USES TECHNOLOGY  TO BOOST SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

 In 2019, 14-year-old Jessica (not real name), dropped out of Kitebi Secondary School in Kampala
on realisisng that she was pregnant.
When that happemned, little did the
school know that it would lose many
other girls to pregnancy soon after.
By the end of the year, 50 girls had
dropped out of this public secondary
school, which has a population of
over 3,000 students. An investigation
by the school showed that some of
the girls who dropped out due to
pregnancies did not report to school
for several days, yet on all occasions,
they left home for school.
On realising how hard it was
to monitor student attendance,
the headteacher, Muhammed
Kamulegeya, introduced an
electronic learner tracking system at
the beginning of this year’s first term.
The system, which allows teachers
and parents to track a learner’s
school attendance, was launched by
the education and sports permanent
secretary, Ketty Lamaro, at the school
in Kampala recently. The school,
which said the technology has
“eliminated” student absenteeism, is
hopeful that it will also help it reduce
early pregnancies.
The system, which works as a
roll call tool, registers the daily
attendance of students and teachers.
The students have been issued
with cards, which they swipe at
the electronic attendance device on
arrival at school.
The machine then sends a report
to the mobile phones of the parents
and school managers, notifying
them about the student’s arrival
at the institution. It also sends
alerts to parents and teachers as
students sign out at the end of
class.
“I commend the school
administration for establishing the
students’ electronic attendance
tracking system, which gives
feedback to the concerned parents,
about the attendance of their children
at school in real-time,” Lamaro said
after launching the electronic school
attendance system.
She described Kamulegeya as
an innovative and hard-working
headteacher, saying his style of
management and solutions-based
approach should be emulated by
all teachers across the country.
She noted that effective school
management is key to improving the
quality of education.
Lamaro says innovative solutions
like this could be embraced by
schools to deal with challenges, such
as students skipping classes, which
can land learners in problems like
early pregnancies and marriages,
which continue to shatter the career
A report released by the
United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) in
2017 showed that Uganda had
the highest school dropout
rate in East Africa, followed by
Kenya and Tanzania.
According to the World
Bank, more children from
poor families have enrolled
in schools in Uganda, where
free primary education was
introduced over a decade ago.
However, the country suffers
from high school dropout
rates blamed on financial
challenges, including requiring
parents to pay for lunch and
construction fees for their
children.
An analysis of the latest
information shows that 31%
reached Primary Seven in
Uganda last year, which
represents an improvement
although the dropout rate is
still high. This problem has
been blamed by some studies
on factors, such as early
pregnancies and marriages,
poverty, corporal punishment
and lack of interest and lunch
at school.
Other school dropout drivers
include a lack of counselling
and guidance, domestic labour
and poor management of
menstruation periods.
John Eresu, a researcher
on educational issues,
blames part of the school
dropout problem on Uganda’s
academic system, which he
says restricts learners to the
“rigours of education” alone.
“This means pupils who
cannot cope with the pace of
the tough academic work lose
interest and leave school,”
Eresu explains.
The high school dropout
rate threatens to reverse
gains registered in the
education sector. However,
innovative approaches, such
as the school attendance
tracking system could make
a significant contribution to
efforts to address some major
drivers of the problem – teen
pregnancies and marriages.
UNESCO REPORT
dreams of many girls.
Records in the education ministry
show that about two million pupils
join Primary One every year, but only
around 600,000 of these make it to
Primary Seven.
Kamulegeya says he set up the
attendance tracking system to reduce
cases of learners dropping out of
school. He adds that his decision to
put in place the system was informed
by the fact that some students,
especially the girls, left their homes
for school, but did not get to the
institution.
While the parents thought their
children attended school, according
to Kamulegeya, they were, instead
meeting “boyfriends and sugar
daddies.”
Lamaro (third-right) launching the electronic student tracking system at the school recently
‹‹
Students have been
given cards, which
they swipe through
the learner tracking
system device on
arrival at school.
“Students now arrive at school
early and we expect this to improve
our academic performance,”
Kamulegeya added.
He revealed that the school
procured the system from Scotland
at a tune of sh200m — which was
part of the school fees paid by
the parents. Kitebi is one of the
government-aided schools where
students pay fees.
“We tested the technology in
the first term and when we were
convinced it works, we decided to
launch it,” Kamulegeya says.
“It is good because it allows parents
and teachers to monitor students
jointly,” he adds. A similar system
exists in some schools in Kenya,
where students sign in and out as
they arrive and leave school daily
using biometric devices.
The system, which some Kenyan
schools introduced in 2018, sends
alerts to teachers and parents as
students clock in and out. It was
intended to help parents and
teachers to monitor the students’
whereabouts and promote their
safety.
PARENTS SPEAK OUT
Agnes Nalukenge, a student at
Kitebi Secondary School, says the
system has encouraged students
to keep time. “If you arrive at the
school late, you cannot register
because all machines are locked by
8:30am and unlocked at 5:00pm
when we leave the school. If one
A student using the
swipe card to sign in
does not clock in, the parents get a
message indicating that they have
not reached school,” she added.
Brenda Namuleme, another student,
says previously students who missed
classes would get registered by their
peers on sheets of paper provided
by teachers as having attended, but
this fraudulent practice has been
eliminated by the system.
“Some of us would not attend
classes for a week, but that is no
longer possible because we are being
tracked,” Shafik Kasaga, another
student, says.
Grace Kisakye, a parent, says the
innovation has inculcated a sense of
responsibility among the students as
they try to return home, as early as
possible.