Education: Ruparelia Group’s $7m Investment into Kampala Parents’ Pays Off; 100% Pupils Pass in First Grade

With 100% pupils in first grade, Kampala Parents’ performance is more than 3 times above the average first grade performance for all Kampala schools- where out of 29,439 pupils, a total of 8,622 passed in first grade, representing 29.6%.

By Muhereza Kyamutetera

“We have listened to our parents, we worked closely with our teachers and pupils and this has shown in our 5-star performance in the just released 2018 PLE results.”

These were the words of Kampala Parents’ School proprietor, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia, in reaction to the schools sterling performance, with all 234 pupils passing in first grade.

This is a much better performance compared to 2017, when out of the 274 pupils, 200 scored first grade and the rest passed in second grade. Even when the school came out the best in mathematics countrywide some parents did not seem happy then.

“This is a result of working with our teachers and pupils and listening to our parents and other stakeholders,” said an elated Ruparelia.

With 100% pupils in first grade, Kampala Parents’ performance is more than 3 times above the average first grade performance for all Kampala schools- where out of 29,439 pupils, a total of 8,622 passed in first grade, representing 29.6%.

655,698 sat for the exams, out of whom 599,593 (91.4%) passed in various divisions. A total of 56,398 (8.6%) candidates failed and about 3,500 (0.5%) pupils had their results confiscated over malpractices.

Nationally, out of the candidates who passed, 77,133 (11.8%) passed in first grade, 270,000 (41.2%) in second grade, 140,000 (21.4%) in third grade while 107,398 (16.4%) in fourth grade.

Mathematics was the worst done subject. Only 77 percent of the candidates passed the subject. Social Studies and Science the best done subjects respectively for a second year running and compared to 2017, although English was the second worst subject, more candidates passed English in 2018.

Overall, Kampala schools slightly improved as, with the percentage of students who passed in first grade rose by 2.6 percentage points from 7,754 (27%) in 2017 to 8,622 (29.6) in 2018.

Kampala District had 29,439 candidates.

Daphine Kato, the Kampala Parents’ Principal thanked the directors for appropriately equipping the school with all the necessities that “keep the school on top.”

“God is good and He has always been on our side,” she said adding: “Children who are going to secondary school, congratulations. Continue working hard, put our school on the map and be role models.”

She also thanked parents for working hand in hand with teachers and the school administration to achieve the best results.

Best pupil wants to be a lawyer

Atukunda Elizabeth, was the best pupil. She score 4 Aggregates, is eyeing Gayaza High and wants to be a lawyer when she grows up.

“I want to thank the directors, management and staff plus all my teachers who have enabled us to excel,” she said adding: “I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it with my friends, I want to join Gayaza Girls or St. Mary’s Namagunga for my S1.”

Rajiv Ruparelia, a director at the school said that with expansion projects complete, a lot more focus would be put academic excellence, with an aim of producing balanced pupils.

“Much as we did very well, better than most if not all the schools in our category, we are capable of a lot more. We have invested in the best facilities to create a great learning environment for pupils. This great performance is a good indicator that the investment made by the directors is beginning to pay off. More importantly, it is an encouragement to our teachers, our parents and our pupils,” he said in a phone interview.

The school recently received a $7 million facelift and expansion that saw the building of 35 new classrooms, creating a total of 110 classrooms at the school. Two (2) state of the art libraries, 2 ICT rooms, 2 science labs, 2 home science labs, 1 media room, 1 stitching room, 1 music room, 1 drama room and a 2,000-seater multipurpose hall to double both as the dining hall and recreation centre were also built.

A new swimming pool, a basketball court and an extra playing field are being constructed as well as a 500-capacity purpose-built kindergarten and a day care centre with a capacity of up to 200 toddlers were also added. The school also had a 2-kilometre wall fence erected around the 13-acre school complex as part of the expansion to boost security of the pupils.

The school has an installed capacity for 3,000 pupils in the upper primary school section and 700 kids in the kindergarten and day care sections.  The school admits pupils from 2 years (pre-primary) up to Primary 7.