UNEB shares blame on exam leakages
THE Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) revealed that over 2,000 students who sat for 2006 UCE examinations are to repeat the year because their results were cancelled due to alleged malpractices. <br>
By Augustus Nuwagaba
THE Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) revealed that over 2,000 students who sat for 2006 UCE examinations are to repeat the year because their results were cancelled due to alleged malpractices.
Examination centres for seven schools have also been withdrawn. What is UNEB up to? Are these people (who are cancelling results and closing examination centres ) also parents? Do they also pay fees for their children?
In his submission to the parliamentary committee on social services, UNEB Secretary General Mathew Bukenya said cheating was caused by inability to transport examinations directly from UNEB offices to various examination centres on the same day.
Bukenya’s analysis posits to the fact that examination leakage only takes place during transporting examinations. This is not true. Otherwise how come we did not have this level of examination leakages in the 1980s and early 1990s?
The following are the reasons for massive cheating and leakages:
Corruption has been institutionalised and is now a way of life and means of livelihood.
Poverty is also to blame. The examination process involves teachers who set questions; UNEB which co-ordinates the process; police which guards the examination questions in various examining centres; and the examination scouts and supervisors. An examination paper is a gold mine. The irony is that the people who guard and administer the examination process are the most poorly paid. Can you trust a hungry dog to keep your meat?
It is an international norm that social services are not advertised. That is why hospitals, law firms and consultancy firms do not openly advertise their services. In Uganda, schools advertise their services in the media and also struggle to have their students who excel appear in the media. Most schools in Uganda have degenerated to grade manufactures rather than centres of teaching and learning. You cannot avoid examination leakage if this vice goes on unabated.
In the 1960s, people used to join the teaching profession as a calling. As a result, teachers were role models and many people craved to be teachers. Today, it seems some schools employ teachers who lack ethics and integrity.
What should be done to control exam leakages?
As teachers, we need to shape up and rediscover ourselves. I do not think I would help my student to cheat examinations. What behaviour do you expect from the person you helped to cheat after he becomes a public servant? What seeds would you have sown? This is planting seeds of criminal behaviour and the harvest is in form of hard-core criminals.
Punitive measures should be enforced against culprits. Proprietors and managers of schools where cheating is proved should be punished. The measures should be very harsh so as to deter other potential culprits. But the culprits must be clearly isolated because cancelling results of all students at a given centre may target the wrong and innoecent people. Not all students in such schools cheat. Similarly, not all teachers get involved in malpractices.
Closure of schools is a harsh but effective solution. Students can suffer due to the closure of their school but this suffering is temporary. This is the price that one has to pay. For example, there is improvement in our financial sector because of the closure of financially imprudent commercial banks.
No solution will work if corruption levels are not checked. Culprits should be severely punished and the ill-gotten wealth confiscated. In Uganda today, the corrupt are applauded as hard working while those who toil are considered lazy. This is the perception people hold about public servants. Therefore, curbing corruption must begin with correction of this perception.
Adequate remuneration of workers should be considered urgently. Poorly-paid employees tend to remunerate themselves through corrupt means. It would be naive to ask a hungry person to distribute food to others except himself.
The writer is the chairperson of Makerere University Academic Staff Association
THE Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) revealed that over 2,000 students who sat for 2006 UCE examinations are to repeat the year because their results were cancelled due to alleged malpractices.
Examination centres for seven schools have also been withdrawn. What is UNEB up to? Are these people (who are cancelling results and closing examination centres ) also parents? Do they also pay fees for their children?
In his submission to the parliamentary committee on social services, UNEB Secretary General Mathew Bukenya said cheating was caused by inability to transport examinations directly from UNEB offices to various examination centres on the same day.
Bukenya’s analysis posits to the fact that examination leakage only takes place during transporting examinations. This is not true. Otherwise how come we did not have this level of examination leakages in the 1980s and early 1990s?
The following are the reasons for massive cheating and leakages:
Corruption has been institutionalised and is now a way of life and means of livelihood.
Poverty is also to blame. The examination process involves teachers who set questions; UNEB which co-ordinates the process; police which guards the examination questions in various examining centres; and the examination scouts and supervisors. An examination paper is a gold mine. The irony is that the people who guard and administer the examination process are the most poorly paid. Can you trust a hungry dog to keep your meat?
It is an international norm that social services are not advertised. That is why hospitals, law firms and consultancy firms do not openly advertise their services. In Uganda, schools advertise their services in the media and also struggle to have their students who excel appear in the media. Most schools in Uganda have degenerated to grade manufactures rather than centres of teaching and learning. You cannot avoid examination leakage if this vice goes on unabated.
In the 1960s, people used to join the teaching profession as a calling. As a result, teachers were role models and many people craved to be teachers. Today, it seems some schools employ teachers who lack ethics and integrity.
What should be done to control exam leakages?
As teachers, we need to shape up and rediscover ourselves. I do not think I would help my student to cheat examinations. What behaviour do you expect from the person you helped to cheat after he becomes a public servant? What seeds would you have sown? This is planting seeds of criminal behaviour and the harvest is in form of hard-core criminals.
Punitive measures should be enforced against culprits. Proprietors and managers of schools where cheating is proved should be punished. The measures should be very harsh so as to deter other potential culprits. But the culprits must be clearly isolated because cancelling results of all students at a given centre may target the wrong and innoecent people. Not all students in such schools cheat. Similarly, not all teachers get involved in malpractices.
Closure of schools is a harsh but effective solution. Students can suffer due to the closure of their school but this suffering is temporary. This is the price that one has to pay. For example, there is improvement in our financial sector because of the closure of financially imprudent commercial banks.
No solution will work if corruption levels are not checked. Culprits should be severely punished and the ill-gotten wealth confiscated. In Uganda today, the corrupt are applauded as hard working while those who toil are considered lazy. This is the perception people hold about public servants. Therefore, curbing corruption must begin with correction of this perception.
Adequate remuneration of workers should be considered urgently. Poorly-paid employees tend to remunerate themselves through corrupt means. It would be naive to ask a hungry person to distribute food to others except himself.
The writer is the chairperson of Makerere University Academic Staff Association