PLE: Distributors decry long distances

Nov 06, 2018

Some of the distributors in Kaberamaido have said the long distances given to them made them deliver the papers late to some of the examination centers.

PLE EXAMS

KABERAMAIDO -Some of the primary schools in Kaberamaido district received their Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) papers of 2018 late due to  long distances.

Some of the distributors in Kaberamaido have said the long distances made them deliver the papers late.

One of the distributers, Moses Edwogu said they were more distributors last year than this year. He said this made the eight of them to have more examination centers to distribute the exam papers than last year.

Edwogu said he delivered some papers to some schools as late as 10:00am yet the candidates were supposed to begin  their exams at 9:00am.

 

A candidate prays before beginning her PLE paper at Kaberamaido Primary School in Kaberamaido district

He said the late delivery is not his making but attributes it to UNEB. Some of the schools that received the morning papers late included Oyama Eolu, Alem, Gwetom and Teete among others.

Meanwhile, another distributor, Bonny Ogwal said he also faced the same challenge in delivering the papers.

He said the last point he served was at 10:00am in one of the examination centers.

Another distributor, David Epiu said primary schools like Kagaa and Ochero also got the papers late.

Meanwhile, the headteacher of Alem Primary school, Elizabeth Aligoi said she received the morning paper of mathematics late.

Aligoi said she got concerned when the paper arrived  late at 9:55am.

The district inspector of schools, Kaberamaido, Flowrence Ongada said for the previous years, they have been having nine routes.

"It has been the district bearing the cost of the ninth route to have the papers delivered in time but we failed this year", Ongada said.

Asked whether she has ever reported the matter to higher authorities of UNEB, Ongada said she had ever reported the issue but no positive response had been realised.

She said this could be the reason why some examination centers received their papers late.

However, it was this year when we reduced it to eight routes since we ran short of funds.

UNEB has been aware of only eight routes but looking at the distance of different exam centers, the district opted to bear the costs of the ninth route.

Ongada said when they now brought in the issue of the police officers escorting the PLE papers to the examination centers, they had no extra budget.

Meanwhile, she said the exam papers for one of the examination centers at Standard Junior Primary School were sent to a different storage center.

Whereas Standard Junior Primary School is within the district, its papers were supposed to have been packed at Otuboi storage center which is near the school.

She said they had to incur another cost of transporting the papers to the school.

Meanwhile, the deployment of police officers as a new phenomenon has been seen as a good move to curb the malpractices.

Ongada said there was no bad incident reported during the day apart from the PLE papers being delivered late to some of the centers.

She said amidst having delay in paper delivery, the day had ended well.

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