By George Bukenya
As Uganda Certificate of Examinations (UCE) commence, the Minister of State for Higher Education Dr. John Chrysestom Muyingo has warned Head Teachers not to deter candidates from sitting their final exams.
The Minister said that government signed with school heads and owners a Memorandum of Understanding and agree to allow all students who owe them school fees to do their final examinations on grounds that UNEB won’t release results of fees defaulters until they clear to their respective schools the outstanding dues.
“School heads and proprietors are obliged to honor the MOU they signed with government enabling them allow all students who owe them fees because UNEB will keep results until they are cleared by their respective schools.” Dr. Muyingo stated.
The two UCE examination sets that are being administered by UNEB this year, the one for the New Lower Secondary Curriculum (NLSC) and that of the Transitional candidates who registered last academic year and failed to sit due to some reasons and those who wish to improve their grades.
The NLSC final examinations will account for 80% of the final examination results while 20% come from the continuous Assessment Scores as well as a project work which schools ought to summit to UNEB not later than October 30th 2024.
Meanwhile UNEB has deployed a total of 1,200 scouts and 539 security personnel to man the security of Examinations in 4,168 examination centre spread throughout the country.
Candidates under the New Lower Secondary Curriculum (NLSC) started with mathematics paper 1 in the morning and in the afternoon they will be sitting chemistry paper 1. According to UNEB principle communications officer Jennifer Kalule, there no major challenges encountered so far.
While addressing reporters at Naguru Police Headquarters, called cautioned parents and guardians to vigilant on fraudsters who are aiding and abetting malpractices.
“ It’s a responsibility of everybody in the country to see that there are malpractices of any kind while UNEB examinations are being done because this vice in the long run affects all of us,’’ Kalule said.
“ The public is hereby cautioned against dealing with fraudsters who are out there trying to trick unsuspecting members of the public,’’ she warned.
Kalule also revealed that the security personnel deployed in Tororo have already apprehended two of the suspects scammers last week and where committed to the area Magistrate Court which remanded them to prison until 15th October, 2024.
According to UNEB Act 2021, Section 25(1), any person who gains or attempts to gain possession of any examination paper, or any part of an examination paper, examination materials commits an offence and is liable, upon conviction to a fine not exceeding Forty Million Shillings or serve a term of imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or both.
The same law provides that the, teachers, invigilators and scouts who also indulge in any kind of malpractice or negligently allow, or fail to stop unauthorised assistance to candidates are also liable, on conviction to a fine not exceeding 20 Million Shillings or serve 5 years in jail, or both.
A total of 379,748 candidates are sitting there final exams this year unique year in the history of UNEB. Of these, 10,147 are Transitional candidates, while 369, 601 are the pioneers of the curriculum. The new curriculum pioneer female candidates stand at 187,870(50.8%), compared to the males who are 181,727(49.2%).
Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five (825) candidates are Special Needs Education learners, with only 38 sitting for the Transitional examinations. A total of 109 candidates are prisoners who are sitting their final examinations in two centres, one in Mbarara with only 11 and Luzira Upper Prison has 98 candidates.