Security of Uneb exams within own premises is guaranteed

I am writing in response to a story published in the Daily Monitor newspaper of July 3. The story titled ‘Exam leaks extend to UNEB officials’ alleges that ‘senior and influential Uganda National Examination Board (Uneb) officials involved in setting and packing exams are part of a wider and complex network that leaks exams.’
Allow me to clearly state here that this is absolutely baseless. The allegations made in the story have been based on speculative opinions and assumptions of those who do not have adequate knowledge of Uneb operations.

I wish to assure the public that the security of Uneb exams within Uneb premises is fully guaranteed. We put in place very stringent measures that have been tested and approved by security personnel at the highest level. The security precautions within the Uneb printing and packing premises ensure that even if someone had intentions of leaking the exams, they are not able to do so.

The story makes it look like the examination papers are freely available on the shelves in Uneb offices, and easily accessible to Uneb officers. The fact is that very few Uneb officials, who are of proven integrity, have access to the examination items during the quality assurance stages. These few are highly vetted and swear an oath of secrecy.

The process of development of an examination paper from item setting to printing and packaging is complex and goes through stages, all of which are carried out under very controlled conditions.

The allegation that some schools with the so-called ‘big financial muscle’ work with insiders in Uneb to give exam papers during second and third term is equally baseless. Uneb has a rich, very secure question bank from which questions are randomly selected and nobody is able to know, at this point, the exact questions, which will appear in the examination papers.

It is also worth noting that the decision on the questions to be printed for a particular examination paper in any year is taken at the very last minute before printing. This is done after all the people involved in final setting and printing processes have already been confined in the secure printing and packaging premises, and have no way of communicating with the outside world.

One of the precautions taken is that the persons involved do not enter with any communication gadgets and are subjected to further search by security officers to ensure that nobody has inadvertently carried any communication gadgets with them. Furthermore, the premises are fitted with equipment that detects the presence of any communication devices within the surroundings, and disables any communication from such gadgets.

It is also wildly untrue that even when someone died in the printer during the process, their body is kept, until the whole process is complete. This is a figment of somebody’s imagination. But even if such a wild idea were true, it would simply demonstrate the level of strictness attached to the process of printing and packing examination papers.

Examination malpractice takes several forms. We have said before, most of this is in form of external assistance or help given to candidates by unscrupulous teachers, supervisors, invigilators or any other person during the course of the examination. Information gathered by scouts and other security agencies indicates that in some instances, parents have actively collected money that they give to the schools to compromise the invigilators and allow help to be given to the candidates.

It is also necessary to appreciate that during the course of the examination, Uneb employs upwards of 75,000 persons involved in different activities in the conduct of exams. It is possible that in such a large group of people, there are those who will, through acts of omission or commission, cause examination malpractice to occur.

Uneb will continue to work with security agencies and education officials at the districts to ensure the integrity of the field conduct of examinations. According to investigations, carried out by security agencies, the storage facilities are so far the sources of examination leaks.

For instance, all the three cases of leaks that are currently in court have originated from storage stations.
I wish to reiterate our commitment to conduct valid, reliable, equitable and quality assessment of learners’ achievements in a professional and innovative manner.

I appeal to all stakeholders to recognise examination malpractice as a serious vice and form of corruption, and to support Uneb to fight it. Integrity and security of examinations must be everyone’s responsibility.

Mr Odongo is the Uneb executive secretary