Uneb probe reveals how national exams leak

Kampala. An investigation by Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) into cheating of national examinations has revealed that question papers are leaked mostly at police stations where they are stored in transit to schools.

Mr Dan Odongo, the Uneb executive secretary, told Daily Monitor in an interview that there was ample evidence in some of the candidates’ answers which showed that they could not have written the responses without prior information on what had been asked.

He said subsequently Uneb, with the help of police, launched an investigation to establish how the question papers had leaked.
Mr Odongo said there were cases of some people accessing the 2018 question papers before the examinations were administered, but the magnitude of the leaks was not as high as in the previous year.

However, he observed that although the confirmed cases of exam leaks were limited, the evidence they received for the few cases was bad.
He said some individuals, whom he did not name for fear of jeopardising investigations, had accessed the question papers before the actual examination time.
“We had cases of persons who accessed some papers shortly before the start of the examination. The evidence was found in some answers of some candidates. Evidence was found that these candidates could not have written these answers without having had some knowledge earlier,” Mr Odongo said.

“We instituted investigations to try and find out what their sources were. These ones were limited but they were still bad enough because somebody accessed the papers before the actual time. The board working with security agencies launched investigations which resulted in arrests. We cannot say too much about it since it is already in court,” he added.

Mr Dennis Tumuhimbise, the police Criminal Investigations officer, said nearly 50 people were arrested, but they were later released on bond as police prepared their case files.
At least eight teachers and a police officer, who were in charge of managing and protecting the question papers, have since been charged.
“We are going to hunt for more,” Mr Tumuhimbise said in a separate interview. He declined to give further details.

How papers are delivered
Using the examination timetable, question papers are delivered from Uneb offices in Kyambogo in Kampala to storage stations, often at police stations, across the country per week under tight security.
On arrival, they are received by the area supervisor. The storage stations are mainly at police stations and three people are in-charge of the storage station. These are the Uneb area supervisor, police officer and Uneb chief scout.

In hard-to-reach areas, Uneb creates sub-stations at Gombolola (sub-county) level where the examination papers are kept to reduce the distance from the stores at police stations to the examination centres.
The examination scripts are kept in containers which have two ordinary padlocks and an electronic one.

The chief scout keeps the electronic key for the container where the boxes with question papers are kept while the Uneb supervisor and police officer each have the other key to the padlock on the container.
Head teachers pick the examination papers from the storage facilities 30 minutes to the start of each paper every day.
In some areas, the papers are delivered on motorcycles while in cases where head teachers/schools have cars, they deliver them.
The head teacher hands the papers to the chief invigilator on arrival at the examination centre.

It is presumed that the 30-minute period they are given to pick the papers from the storage to when students start on time does not allow them to cheat unless there is connivance with the area supervisor, according to sources.
Mr Odongo said Uneb’s biggest problem has been at storage facilities [sub-county/police stations] where their investigations have found that the exam leaks start.

A teacher, who has served as a Uneb scout but declined to be named, said there is no way an outsider can access the container of the question papers without knowledge of the three officials.
He said one time last year, he was tempted with a Shs3m inducement, which he declined to take at one of the Wakiso schools where Uneb had assigned him to scout.

“Cheating has become mandatory in some schools where there is a budget to effect it at all costs. Papers don’t leak from Uneb secretariat. They leak from storage stations where containers are kept. The people involved are the chief scouts, area supervisors and security personnel who have the keys to the containers,” the source said.
He said usually the suspects pick a question paper from each of the sets to be done in that week and either photocopy and return them or remove the extra copy which Uneb puts in every examination set.
They then scan the papers and keep them on their WhatsApp accounts and use agents to look for clients.

The examination set for a week costs between Shs3m and Shs10m depending on the school’s financial capacity. Money is paid to the perpetrators before the exam papers are shared.
Mr Odongo said Uneb uses different security agencies during the examination period, including police, military and undercover security agencies to manage the examinations.
However, he observed that in some areas, security is weak.

Without disclosing the Uneb budget, Mr Odongo said they now have enough money to pursue the suspects.

“We now have the resources to support these investigations. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. It does not matter that the examination has been done and results released. As long as there are those suspected to have been involved to disclose the examinations ahead of time, we will pursue them and arraign them before the law,” Mr Odongo said.
“We have to resolve that now because if not checked, it will tarnish the image of our education system. It will invalidate the results and the certificates that we issue,” he added.

He said although all the suspects who were arrested are teachers except one police officer, he still upholds the profession with high esteem.
“All those examination centres are manned by teachers. They conduct and mark the scripts. But we have these few who have been influenced by greed to make a quick buck and succumb to the temptation of sharing these examinations to make more money. If you look at them and the percentage of those involved in the management of exams, they are a drop in the ocean. Unfortunately, few as they are, their actions cause a lot of damage,” Mr Odongo said.

For example, candidates who sat last year’s Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) at Bundimulinga, Bubandi, Bundikahungu and Clevers Origin primary schools, all in Bwamba county in Bundibugyo District had their results cancelled after security operatives found teachers writing answers on the chalkboard for candidates.
Others were Izahura examination centre which had Bupomboli, Kihoko and Green Cycle primary schools in Bughendera county in Bundibugyo District.

Mr Odongo said parents had facilitated the malpractice by paying Shs50,000 for each candidate, adding that such actions undermine the integrity of the academic documents Uneb issues.

He said since 2017 when examinations leaked, they have since bought 300 containers out of 340 needed and installed them at police stations.
“In some instances where the problem occurred, we did not have security and had not put there containers. We are also going to upgrade the security command levels because many of the stations are in rural areas where the police presence may not be very strong,” Mr Odongo said.
“We have found that the point where we have a problem is the storage station. We have also found that we had some weakness for PLE where the exam is picked from the storage station and hooked to the sitting centre. We had some few instances where the distributors tended to interfere with the contents in the envelopes,” he added.

Measure
Mr Odongo said the exam body will ensure that distributors are also escorted as they drop the papers at different schools across the country.
He appealed to religious leaders to join Uneb in the fight against the cheating as most education institutions are faith-based.

Mr Odongo said external assistance contributes 80 per cent of all examination malpractices where the perpetrators, majority being teachers, deliberately help candidates.
Uneb withheld results for 5,416 candidates for allegedly involving themselves in examination malpractices during the three levels of examinations they conducted last year.

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