Jailed pupil allowed to sit PLE, girl gives birth during exams

A Primary Seven candidate, who was on the verge of missing the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) while on remand to Katojo prison in Fort Portal, sat for the exams following the intervention of Justice Centres Uganda, a government entity that offers free legal aid to the vulnerable.

Mr Aaron Besigye, the national coordinator of Justice Centres, said they learnt of the candidate’s dilemma during an outreach to the prison.
“While interacting with our officers, the pupil said he was worried about missing his P7 exams that were coming up in this month. We took up the matter and engaged the court to have him released in time to enable him sit for his exams,” Mr Besigye said.

The 18-year old, who was facing charges of theft and house breaking, was a pupil at Kabarole Primary School.
Justice Centres secured a production warrant that enabled him to appear before the Fort Portal Grade One Magistrate, Mr Elisha Arinaitwe, on October 30 where he pleaded guilty to the charges and requested to be pardoned.

Mr Aggrey Atamba, the defence lawyer and an assistant legal officer at Justice Centres, Fort Portal office, said the pupil was a first time offender, who is remorseful and regrets what he did.
Mr Atamba said the candidate requested to be pardoned or be handed a lenient sentence since he had not wasted court’s time and he is now reformed.

Subsequently, the magistrate sentenced him to community work around court premises.
He was allowed to start the punishment after sitting the examinations or serve a two-year imprisonment.

Girl goes in labour
In a related development, a PLE candidate at Lufudu Primary School, Mutumba Sub-county in Namayingo District went into labour while siting her Mathematics paper on Monday.

Mr Naayi Kawere, the district education officer, yesterday said the 16-year-old pupil delivered and continued with the exams.
“She started complaining of pain and teachers became suspicious; however, some female teachers helped her to push and she delivered a boy before returning to sit for the Social Studies paper in the afternoon,” Mr Kawere said.

Mr Majid Dhikusoka, the deputy Resident District Commissioner, said an operation was underway to arrest a boda boda rider suspected of impregnating the candidate.

Mr Dhikusoka admitted that cases of child marriage are rampant in the district, but added that they had established initiatives to curb it.
A total of 695,468 candidates registered for PLE countrywide. The examinations ended yesterday.

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