500,000 pupils to sit national exams

Oct 31, 2010

OVER 500,000 pupils all over country will tomorrow begin their primary leaving examinations (PLE). This morning, the pupils will be briefed about the national examinations as the first requirement.

By Conan Businge

OVER 500,000 pupils all over country will tomorrow begin their primary leaving examinations (PLE). This morning, the pupils will be briefed about the national examinations as the first requirement.

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) said 519,082 pupils registered to sit PLE this year.

This is the highest number to ever sit for national examinations in the country. The increasing number of candidates is attributed to pupils who have been studying under free primary education which started in 1997.

Meanwhile, UNEB has deployed 8,000 scouts for the PLE exams. “We want to ensure that there is no cheating or any other form of examination malpractice,” Matthew Bukenya, UNEB’s executive secretary, disclosed during a press briefing yesterday.

Bukenya said the scouts have powers to arrest anyone found impersonating or aiding candidates in cheating examinations.

He said UNEB is working with security agencies to ensure a smooth conduct of the examinations.

The primary schools’ candidates are part of the 885,190 candidates, who are to sit for national examinations this year in primary and secondary education.

This implies that about 53,000 more students will sit for national examinations compared to last year.

The number of candidates has been rising every academic year. In 2009, about 831,927 pupils and students registered for the national examinations, while about 755,302 candidates registered in 2008.

In 2009, only 513,219 pupils sat for PLE and 217,000 sat for O’level examinations.

About 264,560 Senior Four candidates started their national examinations recently. More 101,548 candidates will sit for A’level examinations.

The rise is attributed to the fact that this is the first academic year in which students under the Universal Secondary Education programme will sit Senior Four final examinations.

More pupils will be sitting for national examinations, under free primary education.

Meanwhile, UNEB has vowed to
have examination papers for primary schools delivered on time. “We have succeeded in having O’level exams delivered on time, it will be the same case with PLE,” UNEB’s deputy executive secretary, Dan Odong, told New Vision yesterday.

Over the years, there have been hussles in having examination papers delivered on time especially in primary school examination centres.

But UNEB says they had created more storage centres to enable the examination papers be delivered on time.

Additional reporting by Ronald Kalyango

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});