Finalists must have national IDs, says UNEB

The Uganda National Examinations Board wants all candidates registering for the national examinations to have National Identification Numbers (NINs).

Much as some of them are below 18 years of age and do not have national identification cards, the Government in 2017 registered all students between the age of five and 16 and gave them NINs.

"But in case one does not have a NIN or a national identity card, they can use a birth certificate," UNEB publicist Jennifer Kalule-Musamba said.

She added: "All schools were notified of this condition of having NINs. We also alerted stakeholders to relax the condition for those who did not have the NINs, to use the birth certificates."

Musamba said this is being done to streamline the capturing of students data in the country for better follow-up and accountability.

In July last year, almost eight million children in the country were given NINs and others national identity cards.

The NINs and national identification cards were made and issued by the National Identification and Registration Authority.


"For foreign students who do not have the alien identification cards, we ask their schools, not individual students, to write to us and we generate codes for them as UNEB," Musamba said.

The process, which will be strictly online, will run for five weeks. According to UNEB, there will be no room for late registration.

In 2017, NIRA introduced the alien identification documents, which were given to registered foreign resident students in Uganda. 

NIRA public relations and corporate affairs manager Gilbert Kadilo at the time said 7,102,453 NINs for children below 16 years had been processed; and an additional 371,087 national IDs had also been printed for children who were 16 years and above, at the time of registration.

This followed the 2017 registration of learners' project, for NINs and national ID cards done in various schools around the country.

Only parents who were duly registered for national IDs at the time were able to register their children because the system linked each child to their parent. Guardians were also able to register orphans under their care, according to details from NIRA.

Kadilo, in a statement, said between May and December 2017, the Government carried out the registration of learners project, to record learners in both government-aided and privately-owned schools, between the ages of five and 16 years.

The project that was led by NIRA, working with the education ministry and other government agencies, projected to register 10 million learners across the country, much as only 9.7 million were captured at the time.

Kadilo said: "It was also stated that learners who would have missed registration during the project period would still have an opportunity to do so through our routine registration programmes conducted at the various NIRA district offices."

Examination fees

According to UNEB, pupils in Primary Seven will pay sh34,000 as registration fees; Senior Four — sh164,000 and Senior Six — sh186,000.

Registration for the national examinations started on October 22 and is expected to end on November 20.

The schools calendar shows that the briefing of students will be on February 26, and the Uganda Certificate of Education examinations will start on March 1, next year, and end April 6. UNEB executive secretary Dan Odongo said briefing of candidates in Primary Seven will be on March 26 next year and they will sit for their examinations on March 30 and March 31.

Briefing for Senior Six candidates will be on April 9 and they will sit for exams from April 12 to May 3.