UNEB Executive Secretary, Daniel Odongo says his office has so far received three formal reports of examination parcels that were tempered with. He says they suspect malpractice involving the distributors, adding that UNEB has some information indicating some distributors temper with examinations.
Uganda National Examination Board- UNEB has
embarked on investigations to establish circumstances under, which several
parcels of Primary Leaving Examinations-PLE scripts reached respective centers
with broken seals.
Many examination centers in Wakiso, Mpigi and
Masaka districts received parcels with broken seals raising suspicion that they
could have been tampered with. Some of the parcels were open, which raised
suspicion of possible malpractice orchestrated by examination distributors.
In normal circumstances, the distributors
receive papers from a designated examination pick up center mostly police
stations where they are kept under lock and key. According to UNEB, this year’s
papers had to be picked up 30 minutes before the starting time – 9:00 a.m.
However, a lot could have happened between the
pickup and delivery time given the fact that there were delays in the starting
time that was reportedly caused by distance from the pickup centers to school
and the breakdown of the delivery vans.
The first case was registered in Mpigi District
where a transporter was accused of tampering with the exams scripts he was
transporting to seven examination centers. The management of Mpigi UMEA primary
school handed the transporter, Musisi Mutumba to police for interrogation.
A source has also disclosed to URN that papers
that were delivered to St Thereza of Avilla Kitenga Primary
School in Masaka District were not matching the number of candidates
registered at the center.
“First of all, the seal wasn’t on and surprisingly
the papers were fewer than the registered number of candidates. The good thing
is that some candidates had not turned up. This was so suspicious and the
invigilators had not reported it up to evening (on Monday),” said the source.
Wakiso District Education Officer, Fredrick
Kiyingi also notes that he has registered similar incidents of’ ‘poor
packaging’ at several centers whose names he didn’t disclose.
Kiyingi says this first caused panic up to when
they contacted top UNEB officials who admitted that there might have been ‘some
issues’ with the packaging and cleared them to let the candidates write the papers
as investigation commence.
//Cue in: “The packing was…
Cue out…we have moved on.”//
UNEB Executive Secretary, Daniel Odongo says his
office has so far received three formal reports of examination parcels that were
tempered with. He says they suspect malpractice involving the
distributors, adding that UNEB has some information indicating some
distributors temper with examinations.
According to Odongo, any parcel that had issued should have been
spotted at the storage center thus questions how
this could have skipped the various checks only to be seen at schools.
//Cue in: “Of course UNEB…
Cue out…some tampering. ”//
He however, says they don’t rule out the
possibility that the seals could have broken given the way the examinations
where transported.
//Cue in: “The only explanation…
Cue out…the problem is.”//
Examination malpractice is a serious vice, which
is increasingly becoming part of Uganda’s education system. Many people attribute
the malpractice to several factors including commercialization of education,
which results into stiff competition between schools, desire for parents to
have their children in the best schools, increasing pressure on teachers and
school administrators to produce results among others.
Over the years, the examination body has been
tightening the grip to curb the vice. This year, UNEB introduced Radom numbers
for both learners and districts in addition to many other strategies to eliminate
malpractice.
