The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni has directed the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) to set a special paper for 23 primary seven candidates who missed a mathematics exam in the just concluded Primary Leaving Examinations.
The P7 candidates of St. Christine Primary School in Kakumiro district reportedly walked for about 15km in the company of their teachers to Mpasana Primary School, where they had registered to sit for their exams, after their headmaster failed to provide a van he had promised and allegedly switched off his phone.
They reached one hour and 16 minutes after the exam had commenced and the invigilators insisted on them not sitting the paper because the UNEB rule says an individual can only be given a maximum extension of 15 minutes after a particular exam has started.
In the wake of events however, the Education Minister has directed the exams board to sympathize with the group and give them a reserve exam given the pupils were not at fault.
Speaking last week about the incident, UNEB said they were consulting with the concerned district education officials to ascertain the circumstances under which the learners missed the said exam.
UNEB who are yet to publicly provide details of their investigation however, said countrywide, PLE was held smoothly with no major challenges.
According to an earlier report from the Education ministry, a total of 832,810 candidates from 14,153 examination centers were expected to sit for this year’s finals.
Jennifer Kalule Musamba the Principal Public Relations Officer, UNEB said they registered 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.
Thank you for your sharing. I am worried that I lack creative ideas. It is your article that makes me full of hope. Thank you. But, I have a question, can you help me?