East African Gazette
Kampala
The Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has kicked off the process of hearing of candidates of the withheld exams for the 2023 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) on ground of suspected malpractice.
Those who are unable to justify their results will be required to retake the exams by the end of 2024.
On the other hand, students who are able to satisfy the committee will be allowed to progress to Senior One.
Prof. Celestino Obua, the Chairperson of UNEB, the exams were withheld due to suspected malpractice.
The affected students are scheduled to appear before the UNEB Security Committee on February 19, 2024, coinciding with the opening of schools for the academic year 2024.
Those affected were invited through their area District Education Officers to the tribunal.
Failure to provide a satisfactory defense will result in the cancellation and re-sitting of exams later in the year.
Conversely, pupils who are able to convince the committee will be permitted to advance to Senior One.
Prof. Obua refrained from disclosing the identities of the affected candidates and their schools, citing the ongoing nature of the issue before the tribunal.
The students will be questioned based on their answer sheets during the hearing.
Following the completion of the tribunal’s proceedings, the list of districts and schools with invalidated results will be made public.
According to UNEB, a total of 749,254 candidates from 15,859 centers (schools) registered for PLE in 2023, representing a decrease from the 832,654 candidates in 2022.
Notably, 501,602 candidates (66.9%) from 11,365 centers were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries, while 247,652 candidates (33.1%) were non-UPE.