Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has Friday announced the time table for the ending academic year exams for primary and secondary schools.
The UNEB Executive Secretary Dan Odiongo told press that the exams are starting at the close of next month.
The exams being held, he said are for the academic year 2020 which has been extended for months because of the Covid19 pandemic that forced closure of all learning institutions.
The Primary Leaving Exams (PLE), Odongo announced, will be conducted between 30th and 31st of March; those of Uganda Certificate of Education (S4) will be held between March 1st and April 6th, whereas those of Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (S6) will be held from 12th April to May 3rd.
Covid19
According to Odong, this year’s exams will be conducted under different conditions to ensure safety of the candidates, their invigilators, supervisors and police from Covid19.
As such, he said, all candidates will be required to wear face masks, sanitize and have their temperatures taken before entering the examination rooms.
“We want to ensure the safety of everybody involved, and so we shall be following the Standard Operating Procedures of the Ministry of Health,” he said.
Fees
Odong on the other hand appealed to schools to allow all candidates to sit the exams including those who have not fully paid the fees.
“We all know that Covid19 has caused a lot of struggle and therefore we would appeal to all schools to allow these unfortunate children to sit their exams,” he said.
Numbers
This year, the number of candidates sitting P7 exams has gone up while those sitting 64 and S6 have gone down.
The PLE candidates are 749811, majority of whom are girls (395869) while the boys are 353942.
In S4, the total number of candidates is 333775 while the S6 candidates are 98379.
Malpractice
Meanwhile, UNEB sounded a warning to persons who plan to indulge in exam malpractices, saying that these now face tougher repercussions, following the recent amendment of the UNEB law by parliament.
Odong noted that reports had emerged from places such as Mubende where people are moving around selling papers they claim are from UNEB at Shs 100,000.
“It is true that Covid19 has hampered learning in the country, but we want you to allow these kids to do what they know. Don’t help them, we know they haven’t learnt enough but do the work on their own.”
