Defilement convict tops A-Level exams
Jubilation. Prisoners congratulate their colleague, Ronald Katongole (2nd right), who scored 18 points and emerged the best UACE candidate at Luzira Maximum Security Prison. PHOTO BY EPHRAIM KASOZI
What you need to know:
- Mr Gilbert Nuwamanya, the head of Luzira Prisons Inmates Education Services, said the 2019 results were an improvement compared to 2018, where the best scored 17 points.
A prisoner convicted for defilement has emerged best candidate at Luzira Maximum Security Prison in the 2019 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Examinations (UACE) exams, qualifying for tertiary education.
Results released on Thursday show that Ronald Katongole, 26, scored 18 points, having sat for History, Entrepreneurship, and Divinity.
The results also show that six prison inmates passed with three principals, while another two passed with two principals, and eight more with one principal pass each. Five other scored subsidiaries, with no failure registered.
Katongole, who is serving six years imprisonment, scored Aggregate 26 in Senior Four and he now wants to become an accountant.
“I am so happy with this result. I am very grateful with Uganda Prisons Service because they have helped me to live my dream by allowing me to study. I was in Senior Three at the time of my arrest but I have benefited,” said a jubilant Katongole.
Katongole is one of the 34 candidates, among them two female, who sat UACE examinations at Luzira Prison in 2019.
According to the results, prisoners Allan Mwesigwa scored 13, Henry Kibwika (12) while Mizamili Abale, Moses Ogweng and 54-year-old former UPDF Lt Charles Uyiroth each scored 11 points.
Officials at the Uganda Prisons Service attribute the better performance to discipline, which is a condition for joining education at prisons.
Mr Gilbert Nuwamanya, the head of Luzira Prisons Inmates Education Services, said the 2019 results were an improvement compared to 2018, where the best scored 17 points.
“All our candidates passed. We have 67 per cent of the inmate students qualify for university, and 33 per cent of them qualify for other tertiary courses for diplomas and certificates,” he said.
Other opportunities offered at Luzira prison are vocational skills training comprising of shoe making, tailoring, carpentry, printing, JIK and soap making.
