Govt extends registration for students’ IDs

The Ministry of Education and Sports has extended the deadline for the registration of all learners for the issuance of National Identification Numbers (NINs).

This followed an outcry from schools across the country who had failed to beat the September 19 deadline, citing network challenges with the system.

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In a September 19 circular from the acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education, Ms Jane Egau Okou, the government has extended the deadline to September 30. This is  to enable heads of school capture and upload data for all learners.

“Reference is made to my August 31 letter where all heads of education institutions were requested to upload data in EMIS portal by September 19.We appreciate all schools that managed to upload this data,” the circular reads in part.

The data is supposed to serve as the baseline information for learner verification and issuance of NINs by Nira).

“Under the new lower secondary curriculum, head teachers will use unique NINs to transmit school-based assessment scores to Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb),”Ms Egau said.

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The ministry also directed schools that had submitted their Senior One and Two learner’s information in hard copies or by email to resubmit through the EMIS portal.

“I reiterate that all information relating to the learners and their respective parents uploaded will be kept confidential in line with existing data privacy and protection Act 2019,”the letter adds.

Complaints
Meanwhile, some parents have been complaining that schools have been asking them to pay a fee of between Shs5,000 and Shs10,000 before their learners are registered.

However, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, Dr Denis Mugimba, in previous interviews said the exercise was free.