Drunken exam supervisors to lose licences, says government
The Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examinations Board (UNMEB) has vowed to dismiss and cancel licences of examiners who will show up while drunk to supervise examinations.
This year’s examinations kick off today in different nursing training institutions across the country.
While briefing the examiners at the board’s offices in Ntinda, a Kampala suburb, on Saturday, the chairperson of UNMEB Examinations Committee, Ms Mary Achuma, said during last year’s examinations, the students complained about some drunken examiners.
“We dismissed two examiners last year who caused chaos at the schools because they were drunk. They forgot their rooms and started asking for food on top of their voices and these acts must not be repeated again,”Ms Achuma said.
“How can a professional examiner show up when he or she is drunk? This contravenes the stipulated ethical conduct and their papers can be cancelled. This must not happen again,” she added.
The examiners comprise deputy principals and tutors, who also administer and mark practical papers. They are supposed to reside at the centres they supervise, according to the rules.
A total of 45,176 nurses and midwives on diploma and certificate programmes are starting their end of semester exams today from 103 training schools across the country. If a student fails the exams, she has to repeat the papers before she or he is promoted to another level.
At the same function, the director general for health services, Dr Henry Mwebesa, directed all hospitals across the country to stop charging money from nursing students who seek to conduct training from their facilities.
“Whoever is charging the nurses, he or she is doing it illegally because we have never approved such charges. Instead of hospitals charging nurses huge amount of money, let the trainees come with their equipment,” he said.
Mr Mwebesa also noted that the Nurses and Midwives Council is slated to resume registration of nurses and midwives who have completed their studies.
The registration exercise had been put on halt because the council had not yet got a substantive registrar.
The commissioner for Business, Technical and Vocational Education Training (BTVE), Ms Safinah Musena, directed training institutes to stop double admission.
“If an institution admits students in January, it should not admit more in July like we have been seeing. Double admission has compromised the standard of learners due to the congestion in those institutions,” Ms Musena said.
