KING FAHAD ISLAMIC PRIMARY SCHOOL’S 177 CANDIDATES CHEATED

Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) this year withheld results of 461 candidates who sat for the 2018 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) in seven schools.

Reliable sources revealed that  this was due to examination malpractice. The schools that were affected included King Fahad Islamic Primary School, which had 177 candidates, Starleans Primary School had 23 candidates, Kawempe Mbogo Primary School had 43 candidates), and others.

At King Fahad Islamic Primary School, candidates who had reportedly scored highly with aggregate 4 and 5, were questioned by UNEB. They actually got their results a month after others had received theirs.  A source intimated The Drone Media that even when asked through mobile networks no results would be shown.

Worried parents stormed the Busega-based primary school, only to be told to wait as the school administration was sorting it out. Surprisingly, most of these seven schools have Islamic background/foundation.

The UNEB Executive Secretary, Dan Odongo, said most of the affected candidates received external assistance from third parties within the examination rooms.

A source in UNEB told The Drone Media that scouts found teachers writing answers on chalkboards for candidates to copy. The examination body stated that candidates at these centers had to part with up to sh50,000 each, to facilitate the examination malpractice.

“ Our scouts found teachers writing answers on blackboards for pupils as they sat for examinations,” Odongo said during the release of the 2018 Primary Leaving Examination-PLE results at the Prime Minister’s Office in Kampala.

Education and Sports Minister Janet Museveni, who presided over the release of the results, said it is a shame that teachers are getting involved in examination malpractice and added that all teachers who were involved would be dealt with by the Awards and Sanctions Department.

Last year, UNEB withheld the results of more than 2500 candidate over examination malpractice. “All the cases for last year have been handled by the UNEB Examination Security Committee. Some results were released in February last year. CAOs with affected teachers were asked to take action against these schools and teachers,” Odongo revealed.

A total of 659,633 candidates sat for PLE in 2018. According to UNEB, boys performed better than their female counterparts. Social Studies and Science were best performed. Mathematics was the worst performed subject with only 77 percent of the candidates being able to pass it.