Who is to blame for exam leakage?
Nov 12, 2006
SINCE 1995, Uganda had never witnessed massive examination leakage as reported this year.
By Stephen Ssenkaaba
SINCE 1995, Uganda had never witnessed massive examination leakage as reported this year.
In 1995, a probe team implicated some Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) officials in the scam. The then board secretary, David Ongom and eight other officials were retired.
When Matthew Bukenya took over as UNEB secretary, examination malpractices were reduced to smuggling notes into the examination rooms, collusion and impersonation of candidates. Everybody thought examination leakages had been relegated to the books of history. Then, who is to blame for this year’s leakage?
UNEB is quick to exonerate itself from the scam, but also declines to point a finger at anybody.
“The issue is under investigation,†said the board spokesperson, Eva Konde. “Let’s wait for the investigations to find who is responsible,†she said.
Another UNEB official said, “This leakage is not massive. Our investigations show that candidates got the questions a day or a few hours before the papers were done.â€
Konde said examination papers are delivered to the Police stations at least a day before the beginning of examinations. At stations with containers, the board supplies two locks and one of the keys is kept by a Police officer and the other by the area supervisor, who is usually a headteacher.
Where there is no container, the papers are kept in a strong room or armoury and a UNEB scout or Police officer keeps the keys.
Unlike in the past, the leakage seems to have been sophisticated and involved high level coordination. Parents, teachers and UNEB scouts have been mentioned as having been accomplices in the scam. In some instances, fraudsters reportedly employed electronic gadgets such as computers, flash disks and mobile phones. One of the schools under investigations is said to have paid sh26m to access the papers.
UNEB doubts whether Marrianum Press leaked the papers.
“Marrianum is one of the best security printers in the country,†said a board official. “The place is run by nuns and all the other printing jobs are suspended when they are handling the examinations. People who print the exams are not allowed to communicate to the outside world. They are confined until the end of the examinations,†said the official, who preferred anonymity.
UNEB has its own printing press, but cannot start printing the examinations until the dormitories for confining the workers are complete.
It is only UNEB secretary Matthew Bukenya, who is involved in the selection of questions. The board usually organises annual training sessions for people to set exams, after which they set a specific number of questions in their areas of specialisation. The questions are synthesised and stored in a data bank. Every year, Bukenya picks the questions at random, before they are sent to the printers.
During the printing and throught the examination period, UNEB officials and security agents are on the alert for any leakages.
“If a paper happens to have been leaked, it is withdrawn and another set of questions sent,†said a board official.
What do teachers say?
George William Semivule, the headteacher of King’s College Budo, does not believe that this year’s malpractices are anything out of the ordinary.
“Exams leak every year, only that leakages are better executed in some years than others,†he says.
While poor preparation of candidates in some schools is believed to be the major cause for cheating, the recent decision by the education ministry that headteachers sign performance contracts is also blamed for the vice.
Semivule said inability to complete the syllabus leads to panic for fear of failing exams.
“Schools resort to cheating as a way out of their dilemma,†Semivule says.
The solution, he says, is proper preparation of candidates for the final examinations and that the Education Standards Agency should be well-facilitated to constantly inspect schools to ensure compliance with the timetable and proper teaching standards.
The Police should also crackdown on the fraudsters.
While many people seem to point an accusing finger at upcoming private schools, such schools argue that the big well-established schools are culpable.
“If competition is anywhere, it is in the big well-established schools, which are always afraid of losing their top positions. In such schools, exam leakage is indirect and subtle. The exams are leaked to students in form of revision tests,†says Godfrey Kigozi, the director of studies at Bright High School in Busega, Wakiso district.
A parent, whose son will soon be sitting A’Level exams in a Kampala school, blames the vice on moral decay, poor monitoring and deep-rooted corruption.
An A’Level science student from Mengo SS says exam leakages have been made worse by modern technology. Today, people use mobile phones and other gadgets to leak exams,†says the student.
Mary Nassanga, who has just completed her O’Level exams, thinks wealthy schools use their influence to get papers from UNEB before hand. Sometimes, these schools collude with wealthy parents to buy exams from UNEB. Poor security measures have also played a part in fuelling exam leakages.
Fagil Mandy, an education consultant and former commissioner for education inspectorate, and Francis Ssenabulya, the headteacher of Kitante Primary School, agree that stiff competition for good grades to attract more students and poor preparation for exams fuel the malpractices.
While saying nobody should be blamed for the leakage until after investigations, Mandy suggests that institutions which deal with exams should be strengthened and schools should dedicate themselves to proper teaching methods.
Additional reporting by John Eremu
SINCE 1995, Uganda had never witnessed massive examination leakage as reported this year.
In 1995, a probe team implicated some Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) officials in the scam. The then board secretary, David Ongom and eight other officials were retired.
When Matthew Bukenya took over as UNEB secretary, examination malpractices were reduced to smuggling notes into the examination rooms, collusion and impersonation of candidates. Everybody thought examination leakages had been relegated to the books of history. Then, who is to blame for this year’s leakage?
UNEB is quick to exonerate itself from the scam, but also declines to point a finger at anybody.
“The issue is under investigation,†said the board spokesperson, Eva Konde. “Let’s wait for the investigations to find who is responsible,†she said.
Another UNEB official said, “This leakage is not massive. Our investigations show that candidates got the questions a day or a few hours before the papers were done.â€
Konde said examination papers are delivered to the Police stations at least a day before the beginning of examinations. At stations with containers, the board supplies two locks and one of the keys is kept by a Police officer and the other by the area supervisor, who is usually a headteacher.
Where there is no container, the papers are kept in a strong room or armoury and a UNEB scout or Police officer keeps the keys.
Unlike in the past, the leakage seems to have been sophisticated and involved high level coordination. Parents, teachers and UNEB scouts have been mentioned as having been accomplices in the scam. In some instances, fraudsters reportedly employed electronic gadgets such as computers, flash disks and mobile phones. One of the schools under investigations is said to have paid sh26m to access the papers.
UNEB doubts whether Marrianum Press leaked the papers.
“Marrianum is one of the best security printers in the country,†said a board official. “The place is run by nuns and all the other printing jobs are suspended when they are handling the examinations. People who print the exams are not allowed to communicate to the outside world. They are confined until the end of the examinations,†said the official, who preferred anonymity.
UNEB has its own printing press, but cannot start printing the examinations until the dormitories for confining the workers are complete.
It is only UNEB secretary Matthew Bukenya, who is involved in the selection of questions. The board usually organises annual training sessions for people to set exams, after which they set a specific number of questions in their areas of specialisation. The questions are synthesised and stored in a data bank. Every year, Bukenya picks the questions at random, before they are sent to the printers.
During the printing and throught the examination period, UNEB officials and security agents are on the alert for any leakages.
“If a paper happens to have been leaked, it is withdrawn and another set of questions sent,†said a board official.
What do teachers say?
George William Semivule, the headteacher of King’s College Budo, does not believe that this year’s malpractices are anything out of the ordinary.
“Exams leak every year, only that leakages are better executed in some years than others,†he says.
While poor preparation of candidates in some schools is believed to be the major cause for cheating, the recent decision by the education ministry that headteachers sign performance contracts is also blamed for the vice.
Semivule said inability to complete the syllabus leads to panic for fear of failing exams.
“Schools resort to cheating as a way out of their dilemma,†Semivule says.
The solution, he says, is proper preparation of candidates for the final examinations and that the Education Standards Agency should be well-facilitated to constantly inspect schools to ensure compliance with the timetable and proper teaching standards.
The Police should also crackdown on the fraudsters.
While many people seem to point an accusing finger at upcoming private schools, such schools argue that the big well-established schools are culpable.
“If competition is anywhere, it is in the big well-established schools, which are always afraid of losing their top positions. In such schools, exam leakage is indirect and subtle. The exams are leaked to students in form of revision tests,†says Godfrey Kigozi, the director of studies at Bright High School in Busega, Wakiso district.
A parent, whose son will soon be sitting A’Level exams in a Kampala school, blames the vice on moral decay, poor monitoring and deep-rooted corruption.
An A’Level science student from Mengo SS says exam leakages have been made worse by modern technology. Today, people use mobile phones and other gadgets to leak exams,†says the student.
Mary Nassanga, who has just completed her O’Level exams, thinks wealthy schools use their influence to get papers from UNEB before hand. Sometimes, these schools collude with wealthy parents to buy exams from UNEB. Poor security measures have also played a part in fuelling exam leakages.
Fagil Mandy, an education consultant and former commissioner for education inspectorate, and Francis Ssenabulya, the headteacher of Kitante Primary School, agree that stiff competition for good grades to attract more students and poor preparation for exams fuel the malpractices.
While saying nobody should be blamed for the leakage until after investigations, Mandy suggests that institutions which deal with exams should be strengthened and schools should dedicate themselves to proper teaching methods.
Additional reporting by John Eremu