Karamoja orphan who got 14 aggregates after resitting PLE seeks Museveni help

A 14-year-old orphan from Karamoja Sub-region who scored aggregate 13 in 2022 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) but decided to resit the exams in 2023 in attempt to boost his performance after failing to raise school fees for secondary school has asked President Museveni and his wife, Janet Museveni who’s the minister for Education to come to his rescue.

Mark Longora, a pupil in a remote school in Moroto District in the mineral-rich north-eastern restive sub-region got 14 aggregates in last year’s PLE after resitting the exam when he failed to raise fees to join secondary school.
His mother, Natalina Opeko succumbed to hunger-related complications in 2016. His father, Luchona Muya too died three years later. 

READ: Ugandans dying of hunger are idiots, says Minister Oryem

According to the exam results released by Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) on Thursday, Longora re-sat his PLE at Lolet-Ekia Community School in Nadunget Sub County, 16 kilometers west of Moroto town, with the hope of boosting his performance and getting a sponsor for his education.
" After failing to find a placement under the Irish Aid scholarship, the head teacher and some people of goodwill helped me resit the exams, but still if I am not helped I will not be able to join secondary ," Longora told this publication on Friday. 
 

Longora is currently staying with an uncle in Lolet-Ekia village where he takes care of his (uncle’s) kids who also lost their mother to hunger-related complications in 2021.

The school head teacher, Mr Robert Arou Okiror, said Longora would have perhaps performed better than he did if he didn’t have the burden of taking care of his cousins.
“My uncle who is a peasant but also lost his cattle to raids is helpless to help me, besides he also lost his dear wife to TB, so if I don’t find an entity to help me secure my future, it will be a doomed one,” he explained.
Ms Joyce Ajuro, a teacher at Lolet-Ekia community school, in Nandunget Sub County said for the second year running, Longora has been their best pupil.
“When he failed to get fees, he had to re-attempt PLE for the second time but got 14 aggregates from the previous 13 he had in his first attempt,”” she explained.

Ms Ajuro said that they had expected the boy to score first grade but because of the circumstances under which he was studying as caretaker of the uncle’s kids, this greatly affected his performance.
“He has to cook for the children of the uncle who lost their mother, all that affected him,” she added.

Longora's teachers appealed to financially blessed persons to come to his rescue, adding that his is an intelligent boy who shouldn't be left to waste away.

Ungraded 
UNEB said Thursday that at least 88,269 candidates who sat the 2023 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) were ungraded.

These represent 10.4 percent of 749,347 candidates who sat the national exams last year, according to the board’s executive secretary, Dan Odongo.
A total of 247,728 pupils, who sat the PLE exams between November 8 and 9 in 14,442 examination centres are from private schools while the rest are from Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools.

For the second consecutive year, girls are the majority amounting to 52 percent (391,558 pupils) of the candidates who sat for the exams while their male counterparts are 357,789 (48 percent).

A total of 2,436 Special Needs Education learners and 79 inmates (13 female and 66 male) from Upper Prison School Luzira also sat for the exams.