By Walter Okello
Lira, Uganda | Moroto Municipality leaders have embarked on a benchmarking study tour to Adyel Boarding Primary School in Lira City, aiming to replicate strategies that have made it one of the top-performing government-aided primary schools.
The initiative comes in response to disappointing 2025 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results in Moroto Municipality, where only 29 candidates achieved Division One and and 136 candidates in Division two a figure that alarmed local education authorities.
Jimmy Okello Omoko, Moroto Municipality Principal Education Officer, expressed deep concern over the poor performance. He explained that the visit to Adyel Boarding Primary School was designed to learn from its success as the leading government school in Lira City.
In recent PLE cycles, Adyel has consistently posted strong results, including tying for high Division One numbers among top schools in Lira City in 2025.
During the tour, the Moroto delegation identified several key practices contributing to Adyel’s success, including effective administration, motivation of high-performing teachers, efficient resource management, staff motivation, parental contributions toward fees, pupil-led group discussions, regular workshops for teacher capacity building, and awards for outstanding teachers.
“We picked up a lot of key things that are fundamental in education, including administration, motivating good-performing teachers, and resource management,” Okello Omoko said. “We will copy this knowledge to our schools to foster good performance in our municipality.”
John Longolio, the Deputy Town Clerk of Moroto Municipality, described the local education performance as “wanting” and stressed that leaders could not afford to remain complacent and urged participating headteachers to implement the acquired insights promptly to drive positive change.
Longolio also called for strict accountability, asking headteachers to identify and report underperforming or errant teachers so appropriate disciplinary measures could be taken to improve attitudes and commitment.
He committed municipal council resources to education improvements, pledging: “We are going to put money as council in the area of education to improve our performance. Any idea that the municipal education officer presents to us, as long as it will improve education, we shall implement it to the dot.”
Additionally, Longolio appealed to the headteacher of Adyel Boarding Primary School to permit their teachers to visit Moroto and conduct training sessions or share expertise across departments. “We shall write to invite your teachers to come and pass the knowledge they have to our teachers, so please don’t deny us such opportunities,” he said.
Isaac Otoa, the headteacher of Adyel Boarding Primary School, shared insights into their sustained excellence. He emphasized proactive leadership, including constant networking to secure resources and grants, alongside the core strategies of staff motivation and parental involvement.
“As headteacher, I keep moving around getting exposed and tapping resources and grants to run the affairs of the school, and this has been key to our performance,” Otoa noted.
He offered ongoing consultation, stating he remains available to any headteacher seeking advice on improving academic outcomes.
John Vincent Odul, deputy in charge of academics at Adyel, outlined broader factors influencing performance, such as curriculum relevance, government policies, poor teacher motivation, political interference, parental attitudes, and the lack of regular performance review meetings.
