Students of Maruzi seed S.S in Apac praying together after their first exam paper on Monday October 14, 2024. Photo by Ambrose Okai

By Ambrose Okai

Lira

The Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams commenced smoothly on Monday, October 14, 2024, with no major incidents reported across the Lango Sub-region.

Bob Same Okino, the Head of the Exam Centre at Lira CPS, stated that the exams began well at his station. ‘’Yeah, we have not heard of any challenges. In terms of numbers, the total students who have registered to take the exams, we have a total of 3, 931 who are doing UCE new lower school curriculum from 39 schools at our center. Then those who are repeating, they call them transitional candidates 473 from 12 schools,’’

At Maruzi seed Senior Secondary School in Apac District, the School Director of Study, Geoffrey Otim, said all their candidates sitting for this year’s UCE examination were properly prepared and that the school has hopes of getting good results from them. “This year, the UCE examinations have two sets of candidates. We have the candidates for the new curriculum, we have 179 candidates. And then we have another set calling them the transition class. We have registered 15 candidates. As a school, we have done all our best to prepare the candidates,” Otim said. He added all the registered candidates turned up for the examination.

Emmanuel Omar, one of the student at the school said they had been facing a lot of challenges due to COVID-19 when they first joined but that their teachers mentored them in whatever ways to face the exams.

Similarly, at Otwal SS in Oyam District, the school headmistress Jennifer Akullu confirmed that the exams started without any issues. “They started very well. They are all present, none of them is absent. We have both an old curriculum and a new curriculum. New curriculum, 57. The transition, there are 7,”

Meanwhile, the North Kyoga Police spokesperson Patrick Jimmy Okema said that Police are ready to secure the exams. "The North Kyoga region registered a candidate of Uganda certificate of education, primary living examination and Uganda advanced certificate of education, the national examination has started well with UCE exams officially. We have received scouts to monitor and security from UPDF and counter -terrorism police officers deployed to provide security for these exams. We want to warn and prepare our students against exam malpractice and those who claim to be selling exams to know that once they are got they will be arrested and charged accordingly. So far so good no case or concern has been registered” Okema said.

UNEB speaks out

UNEB spokesperson Jennifer Kalule Musamba emphasized that all examination centres must adhere to the health and safety protocols recommended by the health ministry to prevent the spread of Mpox.

’’We tell them to follow the guidelines by the Minister of Education and the Minister of Health to make sure that they have cleaning water facilities for washing their hands and outside the classroom room. So the candidates and those who are conducting the exams should be able to wash their hands before entering or even before checking the candidate,’’ Kulule Musamba said.

She added that UNEB has taken firm steps to prevent examination malpractice, partnering with security agencies and deploying over 1,200 scouts across the country and warned against any involvement in cheating, stating that UNEB is closely monitoring all centers.

 “We strongly warn against aiding or abetting any form of examination malpractice. Those caught will face severe penalties under the UNEB Act 2021,” she said
According to UNEB, a total of 379,748, [369,601] registered for the NLSC and [10,147] for the Transitional exam registered to sit UCE exams this year an increase of 4.3% in total candidature compared to 349,445 candidates last year.