William Kituuka Kiwanuka: DO STUDENTS NEED 4 PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS AT HIGHER SCHOOL?

DO STUDENTS NEED 4 PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS AT HIGHER SCHOOL?
I don’t think students at Higher School need to read 4 Principal Subjects at Higher School in Uganda. I have seen many successful professionals while at school at St. Mary’s College Kisubi. These people read for 3 principal subjects and many are good at the fields where they are employed. It disturbs me to see the Ministry of Education fail to phase out the 4th principal subject. It is true that in order to be able to cover the syllabus, these days students do not do much in form of reading books, instead they read what teachers prepared for them for the sake of passing the national examinations. It is equally believed that the pressure to complete syllabuses yet when there is a lot of work induces the practice of cheating to pass examinations. It may be remembered that these developments started when Hon. Amanya Mushega was Minister of Education. It seems those who initially started the practice realized that they could benefit from students getting more points for admission to University under the Government sponsorship, and when the trick was discovered, the weighting method started giving least weight to one of the 4 subjects.
The way forward should be to have the three subjects as was initially the case and have students who wish to do additional subjects like Mathematics at subsidiary level.
BELOW ARE SOME OLD BOYS OF ST. MARY'S COLLEGE KISUBI WHO SAT FOR 3 PRINCIPLE SUBJECTS AND HAVE EXCELLED IN THEIR CAREERS