Daniel Odongo, the Executive Secretary for the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has faulted the regular cases of irregularities and examination malpractices amongst students to reluctance of some school heads to affectively brief students.
Addressing Journalists ahead of the briefing of this year’s final Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations, Odongo said that a cross section of head teachers give inadequate or totally no briefing to the candidates a vice he said backtracks the briefing initiative of conversantly taking students through instructions contained in the timetable as well as the Rules and Regulations on examination conduct.
To this end, Odongo appealed to parents to spare time and attend candidates briefing as part of the intensified candidates preparatory strategy
“UNEB has found out that cases of irregularities and malpractice by candidates quite often arise from candidates receiving inadequate, or no briefing at all. We wish to encourage parents who can do so, to attend the briefing as well.”
The senior four candidates are set to officially start their examinations on Friday October 14 with briefing as the first examination and to this end, Odongo urged Head teachers not to designate authority but rather conduct it themselves.
“The head teachers must explain clearly to the candidates the consequences of their not adhering to these rules and regulations, and of cheating in the examination.”
Candidates are slated to start writing their examination on Monday October 17, 2022, starting with Mathematics 1 in the morning and Mathematics 2 in the afternoon.
A total of 349,445 candidates were registered and are scheduled to sit the examination from 3703 Examination Centres. Of these, 175,923 (50.3%) of the candidates are males, while 173,522 (49.7%) are females. A total of 114,200 (32.7%) of the candidates are funded under the Universal Secondary Education (USE) Programme, while 235,245 (77.3%) candidates are Non-USE. Fifty one candidates who are inmates in Luzira Upper Prison will also write their examination from the Prison.
Five hundred nineteen (519) of the candidates are Special Needs Education (SNE) candidates and according to UNEB, Access arrangements have been made for these SNE learners to receive the necessary support in accordance with their needs.
“UNEB will avail braille answer sheets for the blind, large print question papers for those with low vision, while the deaf will receive sign language interpreters. Candidates with severe physical impairments that may affect use of apparatus during practical examinations will also receive support personnel. Those with dyslexia / reading and writing problems will be availed transcribers,” said Odongo.
