UNEB Executive Director, Dan Odong
The Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has revealed that examiners for the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) are each paid UGX756 per script marked, while examiners for Uganda Certificate Education (UCE) and Uganda Advanced Certificate (UACE) are each paid UGX1,260 and UGX1,488 respectively.
UNEB Executive Director, Dan Odong made the revelation on 18th February 2026, while appearing before Parliament’s Education and Sports Committee, where he was summoned to provide clarification about the planned increment of examiners’ fees, as requested by the Budget Committee, during the consideration of the 2026/27 National Budget Framework Paper.
“Currently we are paying under the old curriculum was UGX720, we made a small revision to UGX756 per script (marked). This is the amount of money you pay an examiner to mark a whole script of one of our candidates. I like boiled ground nuts, so one time I wanted to buy from these ladies who sell at road junctions where traffic stops, and a very small amount in a kavera costs UGX1,000 and I see that an examiner who sweats to mark a script does not earn enough money to buy even that small kavera of ground nuts,” Odong said.
According to UNEB, there are plans to have this money increased to UGX1000 for PLE which will thus leave a funding gap of UGX244.
“For UCE, the new curriculum, we are putting it at UGX1,260, but the examiners are demanding UGX2,000. We may not reach UGX2,000, so we are saying a realistic average is UGX1,500 per script. And UACE currently at 1,488, but we think a realistic figure would be UGX2,000 per script, giving a funding shortfall of UGX512,” he said.
UNEB also informed MPs that for invigilation, UGX45,000 is paid for the chief invigilators and a little less for the others, yet the realistic average is about UGX60,000.
“That gives a funding gap of UGX15,000. This is the amount of money that we pay to invigilators to move from wherever they are to a school or an examination centre that they have been posted to, and it should help them to pay transport costs as well as feeding when they are on duty. So, UGX45,000 is not sufficient. We cannot get whatever we want because we know the cake size, so we think UGX60,000 is a realistic average, giving us a shortfall of UGX15,000,” noted Odong.
These payments should be enhanced