No officials to guide special needs candidates in Buyende as PLE starts

As this year's Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) got underway on Wednesday morning, six special needs candidates at St Kizito Kidera Primary School in Buyende District had no official to guide them.

Mr Eric Grace Bukadu, the district inspector of schools, said Buyende was short of special needs teachers but had deployed "someone with some little skill" to help the candidates.

"We are doing all that is possible to ensure that these candidates do the exams and have been integrated into the education and getting inclusive education," Mr Bukadu said on Tuesday morning.

Uneb Special Needs consultant and lecturer at Kyambogo University, Dr Julius Patrick Omugur, categorised these as "intellectually impaired" and "slow takers".

"They are usually given 45 extra minutes, but optional for those who may not want and are capable of doing within the stated time, while those who are visually-impaired use braille," Dr Omugur said.

He said: "We have a challenge of identification and assessment of these (Special Needs) learners, but we always advocate for inclusive education which helps them integrate into education."

Dr Omugur further explained that Uneb usually deploys support personnel to assist, but the challenge is that they are few.

"We are five for five regions and move around overseeing the conduct and how deployed support personal are supporting candidates with Special Needs," he further explained.

Meanwhile, rains and the poor road network exacerbated by flooding hampered the delivery of examination papers in some parts of Kamuli District in time.

"We had a challenge of rain and roads but managed to deliver the first paper (Maths), with the last delivery centre starting at 10:30am," Mr Simon Mulondo, the inspector in-charge of Bugala North said.