832,810 pupils to sit PLE this year

A total of 832,810 candidates from 14,153 examination centers on Tuesday sat their first papers of the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).

According to Jennifer Kalule Musamba the Principal Public Relations Officer, UNEB, there is a percentage increase of 11.1%, from last year’s candidature, the highest increase ever.

She said 70.1% of these candidates are sponsored by government under the Universal Primary Education ( UPE) Program.

“This is a sign of a vote of confidence in the UPE program. We therefore want to thank the teacher of both the government aided and the private schools for ably preparing and registering these candidates,” Ms. Kalule said.

She however, warned schools to desist from any form of examination malpractice saying that culprits will be charged.

Kalule said the ministry has of late realized that many cases of malpractice arise out of the fact that candidates were not well briefed. She implored school heads to inform their candidates, among other things of the circumstances that may lead to disqualification or cancellation of results.

She said such situations may include but not limited to smuggling unauthorised materials into the examination room, copying from one another, both are the person being copied from and the one copying are culpable, external assistance, prior knowledge, impersonation, and improper behaviour including threatening or attacking examination officials.

“The candidates should have their IDS, at least two pens, and should not write their work in pencil, except for drawings The detailed guidelines and regulations for the conduct of the examination are on the Time table,” Kalule said.

“We caution against involvement in any form of examination malpractice. Anyone found or convicted will be dealt with in accordance with the UNEB ACT 2022,” she added.

Kalule however, reechoed that there had not been any no leakage of any PLE paper as was wrongly reported on social media platforms last week.

“As a board, we strongly guard against leakage or prior knowledge of our examination, or any other form of examination malpractice, as this compromises the integrity and credibility of our certificated.”

“We wish the candidates God’s blessings, and want to assure them that UNEB is not here to fail them but to assess their competencies in a professional, innovative, valid, reliable, and equitable way, to enable them acquire internationally recognised academic documents,” she explained further.