Withheld results: Uneb warns schools against conmen

The Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) has expressed concern over individuals who are allegedly hoodwinking schools, whose results were withheld over examination malpractice.

In a statement issued on March 15, Mr Dan Odongo, the Uneb executive director, revealed that conmen purporting to be Uneb officials were extorting money from head teachers, promising to release the long-awaited results.

“It has come to the attention of the Board that conmen are masquerading as Uneb staff or members of the Examinations Security Committee (ESC), and are extorting money from schools whose results were withheld on account of suspected involvement in examination malpractice,”Mr Ondongo said. According to Mr Odongo, withheld results are heard on their merit.
“Schools should not be hoodwinked into paying money to anyone, under the pretext that such a payment will cause the release of their results. Such people are conmen and school be reported to police,” he said.

Uneb tribunal
Learners whose results are held over suspected examination malpractices appear before a tribunal for hearing before a decision to cancel or release withheld results is undertaken by Uneb.

Last year, the examination body withheld the 2022 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) results of at least 1,035 candidates due to examination malpractice. Since then, Uneb has been tightlipped on withheld results.
Mr John Wilson Tereraho,  the education technical advisor at Save the Children Uganda, said while he appreciates that Uneb is protecting the integrity of examinations by withholding questionable results, schools should desist from engaging in the vice.

Concern
“Examination malpractice is a sign of a bigger problem. Morality is supposed to begin at school.  We are teaching children how to cheat and helping them to cheat. A school is a place where children are brought up. Bringing up a child is not about teaching them mathematics, it is about raising children who are responsible,” Mr Tereraho said.
“Schools must turn to the values of integrity. Sadly, sometimes, parents are also involved. When you let the children cheat, don’t blame anybody for withholding their results,” he further stated.

He also wondered why the law is not biting when it comes to handling those implicated in examination malpractice.
“We shouldn’t have a system, which does not respond to crime appropriately and at the end of the day, children suffer,” he said.

Background
Examination malpractice is a vice that continues to be reported at all stages of education, including the university level.
In her speech read by State Minister for Higher Education John Chrysostom Muyingo at the release of the July-August 2023 Ubteb examination results in Kampala last year, Education Minister Janet Museveni said her ministry does not tolerate any form of malpractice.