Twenty-seven candidates of St. Christine Primary school in Kisiita sub-county Kakumiro district missed their mathematics paper on Tuesday morning when they arrived late for the exams. The affected candidates are registered at Mpasana primary school UNEB center in Mpasana town council.
Peter Nambale, the Uganda National Examinations Board Monitor in Kakumiro District told Uganda Radio Network in an interview on Tuesday evening that the candidates arrived for the exams one hour and fifteen minutes late contrary to the UNEB rules and regulations. Primary Leaving Examinations start at exactly 9 am.
According to Nambale, the school authorities failed to transport the candidates to the UNEB center in time. He says that they allowed the candidates to six social studies exams that happened in the afternoon.
Mary Kyofuna, the Kakumiro District Inspector of Schools, says that it is unfortunate that the candidates failed to write their first paper and faulted the school management for not preparing enough to transport the candidates to the examination center.
Pascal Asiimwe, the Director of St. Christine Primary school, says that they had challenges getting a vehicle to transport the candidates to the UNEB center in time. He, however, couldn’t explain what they intend to do to remedy the situation.
Since UNEB doesn’t administer supplementary exams, this means the candidates will have to repeat another year. Jane Kalule, the UNEB Spokesperson, says that it is unfortunate that the candidates missed the papers because there is nothing the exams body can do.
“The only remedy is to repeat the entire year since UNEB does grade candidates with X, which is given to those who miss a paper. Our guidelines require the candidates to be at the examination center at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the exam,” she said.
She also explained that the reason they don’t allow candidates to arrive late for the exams is an assumption that they could have hidden somewhere to leak the exam and show up later. A total of 4,334 Primary seven candidates registered for the Primary Leaving Examinations-PLE in Kakumiro district this year.
-URN
