The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has spoken out on an incident involving 23 out of 26 candidates of Mpasana Primary School in Kakumiro who missed writing a mathematics paper on November 8, 2022, the first day of the Primary Leaving Examination ( PLE).
On Tuesday, social media was awashed with news of some primary seven pupils that had reportedly missed sitting their mathematics paper after they got to the exam room late.
According to one teacher from the school who preferred anonymity, the pupils from St. Christine Primary School in Kakumiro district were supposed to do their PLE exams from another school, Mpasana Primary School in the same district.
Their school director, Mr Pascal Asiimwe who had gone to hire a van to chauffeur them to the school did not return and also switched off his known phone numbers.
With determination, the pupils made a last-minute decision to brave the long journey in the company of their teachers to the exam centre, about 15 kilometres away.
They however, arrived at the school one hour and 16 minutes late when the exam had already commenced at 9am and the invigilators insisted on not giving them the paper because UNEB rules say an individual can only be given a maximum extension of 15 minutes after the exam has started.
In response to the incident however, Dan Odongo the UNEB Executive Director has said the exam board is consulting with the District Education Officials to establish circumstances under which the learners missed the said examination.
“The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has received information from our field officers that 23 out of 26 candidates of Mpasana Primary School in Kakumiro missed writing the Mathematics paper on November 8, 2022, the first day of the Primary Leaving Examination (PLE),” Odongo wrote.
“UNEB is consulting with the District Education Officials to ascertain the circumstances under which the learners missed the examination. The Board is also scheduling a meeting with the District Officials on this matter, after which, an appropriate decision will be made,” he added.
Meanwhile, the primary seven examinations that were conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday this week ended 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 were sponsored by government under the Universal Primary Education ( UPE) Program.