Delays in the distribution of papers could affect the start of the Primary Leaving Examinations. In areas that URN reporters have so far visited across the country, the distribution of the papers has been delayed.
According to the Uganda National Examination Board, PLE exams are supposed to kick off at exactly 9 am.
At Luwero Central Police Station, the container where the exams were stored was opened at 7:15 am and the distributors led by Yusuf Kamulegeya, the district inspector of schools embarked on checking them before transportation, but by 7:50 am, no distributor had picked up the papers due to ongoing checks which may result into delays for candidates to start writing the papers.
There are four PLE storage centers in Luwero which include Luwero Central Police, Bombo, Wobulenzi, and Zirobwe Police Stations. In some schools, candidates started to gather at around 7 am ahead of the checkups at 8:30 am. 15,721 candidates registered to sit exams at 160 centers spread across schools in Luwero.
By 6 00 a.m, distributors had already reached their respective centres. At Nabweru station, our reporter observed that there was a briefing of the distributors before they were assigned routes.
Henry Lwanga Ssempijja the Nansana Municipal Education Officer, noted that they had decided to use only municipal officials for the work and created 13 routes to serve the entire municipality. “These are all government employees. At times using outsiders causes problems but in case of anything, we can follow up on these ones. We know them and where to find them,” said Lwanga.
At Jinja Road Police Station, teachers were at the venue before 7 am to pick up papers for the respective schools. A few minutes past 7, the distribution of papers started.
The vehicles in which the papers were transported had stickers written on”KCCA emergency Vehicle”. The message was displayed at the front of all the vehicles that were collecting the examinations.
In a meeting between UNEB and the district inspector of schools, it was noted that most of the leakage of examinations at the primary level happens during distribution. To curb this, the State Minister in charge of Primary Education Dr. Joyce Moriku Kaducu advised that distribution should be limited to local government workers.
In Teso, districts started picking examination papers on Monday evening from Soroti Central Police Station to enable early distribution of papers.
Francis Omoding, the District Inspector of Schools says that the dispatching of papers to examination centers started as early as 5:00 am. Serere has registered 7,132 candidates for PLE.
In some schools that our reporters have visited, head teachers were surprised to see other schools join them without prior notice.
Jackson Erima, the head teacher of St. Paul Kyebando Primary School, was surprised to see candidates being brought to his center.
Meanwhile, UNEB has given special permission to schools that don’t have examination center numbers to hold exams in their respective schools. These schools are in areas where cases of Ebola were confirmed. They include; Green Valley Primary school and Gods Will Primary School in Lubaga Division, Kampala.
In a recent interview, Dan Odongo the UNEB Executive Director noted that the move is aimed to mitigate the spread of Ebola by preventing the movement of learners from one school to another to sit for exams.
A total of 832, 810 candidates are expected to sit this year’s PLE from 14,153 examination centers.
-URN
