Relief for Koboko pupils as UNEB recovers missing PLE science scripts

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For weeks, 34 Primary Leaving Examination candidates of Bamure Primary School in Koboko district waited in uncertainty, unsure whether years of schooling would be erased by the disappearance of their Integrated Science examination scripts.

That anxiety eased on Tuesday after the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) confirmed that the missing scripts had been recovered, sealed and intact from a lockable UNEB materials box inside the head teacher’s office.

It was not immediately clear what precipitated the incident, which by press time was still under investigation.

However, in a statement issued on February 3, 2026, UNEB principal public relations officer Jennifer Kalule-Musamba said the recovery followed a routine quality assurance check ahead of the release of results, which flagged the scripts as unaccounted for and triggered investigations at both marking centres and the school.

She said that while the inquiry was ongoing, the affected candidates were temporarily graded “Division X”, an administrative designation indicating a candidate was absent or that results were incomplete. This classification would have automatically locked the pupils out of the national selection and placement exercise.

For families in Koboko, where access to education is shaped by limited resources and long distances to secondary schools, the prospect of losing a full academic year was deeply troubling. The recovery of the scripts has now brought relief to parents and guardians of the affected learners.

UNEB said the recovered envelope was first handed over to Koboko Central Police Station, where officers confirmed that the official seal had not been interfered with, before the scripts were formally returned to UNEB for marking.

Learners progress to secondary school

The Primary Leaving Examination remains the most important assessment in Uganda’s basic education cycle, determining which learners progress to secondary school and which institutions they qualify to join. The results may also be used by learners seeking to transition into technical vocational education and training. As such, a missing script can derail academic progression entirely.

Although UNEB employs several safeguards, including police escorts, secure storage containers and strict accountability procedures, the Board acknowledged that lapses at the school level still occur.

The UNEB publicist said examiners had been directed to urgently mark the recovered scripts, assuring parents and candidates that the 34 learners from Bamure Primary School will be considered in the ongoing national selection and placement process.

According to UNEB figures, 817,883 candidates from 15,388 centres registered for the 2025 PLE, up from 797,444 candidates the previous year.

Rising cases

Cases of learners losing their academic futures due to acts of omission or commission by school administrators remain a persistent challenge within Uganda’s education system.

In 2024, eight Senior Four students at Kati Kati Secondary School, a private institution in Amuru district, were left stranded after the school failed to register them for the Uganda Certificate of Education examinations. The affected learners reportedly only discovered the problem a week before the examinations, when the school administration informed them that their registration fees had been misappropriated by a member of staff.

Parents said they had met all financial obligations, including additional charges demanded by the school to cater for what administrators described as “late registration” with the Uganda National Examinations Board.

Sunday Okwera, one of the affected parents, said he paid a total of sh380,000 to the school director, Ting Traa, for his child’s registration. He added that this was not the first time his son had fallen victim to administrative failures at the same school.

Okwera said the same child missed sitting UCE in 2023 after he paid sh320,000, only to be told later that the payment had been made after UNEB’s registration deadline.

According to Okwera, the repeated setbacks had taken a heavy emotional toll on his child, who had previously missed sitting UCE examinations twice. He called on district authorities to intervene, warning that such cases leave learners traumatised, and families financially drained, with little accountability from school proprietors.

Similar incidents have been reported in Mukono, where, in October last year, the Mukono resident district commissioner, Hajjat Fatuma Ndisaba, ordered the closure of Cream Field Vocational Senior School in Nakifuma–Naggalama Town Council following violent student protests.

The unrest erupted after at least 15 Senior Four students were barred from sitting their 2025 UCE examinations, despite reportedly paying the sh250,000 registration fee. The students accused the school management of mishandling their registration, triggering unrest that drew the attention of district authorities.

Education stakeholders say such incidents expose persistent gaps in the oversight of private schools and weak enforcement of UNEB registration procedures, with learners often bearing the greatest cost when systems fail.