Over 10 remanded for cheating PLE - UNEB

More than 10 people were arrested and are being prosecuted over 2022 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) malpractices, according to the Uganda National Emanation Board (UNEB). 
According to UNEB executive director, Mr Daniel Odong, examination scouts and examiners reported a number of cases of suspected external assistance rendered to candidates by third parties inside the examination rooms and smuggling of information relevant to the examination by some of the candidates.

“Security also arrested some distributors and teachers who cut open question paper envelopes in order to access question papers in the districts of Mukono, Gomba, Mpigi and the greater Masaka areas. A number of these have been arrested and charged in Courts of Law under the relevant sections of the UNEB Act, 2021. Over 10 such suspects have been remanded to Prison in Mpigi and Masaka. Others have been released on bail,” Mr Odong said while releasing 2022 PLE results at Nakaero State Lodge in Kampala on Friday.

According to him, the board will withhold the results of the affected candidates pending completion of investigations.
“All candidates whose results have been withheld will be accorded a fair hearing by the Board’s Examinations Security Committee. After the hearings are concluded the Board will publish, in the media, the list of schools and districts from which results will have been cancelled,” he said.

A total of 832,654 candidates from 14,691 centres (schools) registered for PLE in 2022 compared to 749,761 in 2020. Of this number, 583,768 (70.1%) from 11,306 centres were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries, and 248,982 (29.9%) of the candidates were Non UPE. The proportion of candidates benefitting from the Universal Education programme has increased by 1.7 percent.

Candidature increased by 82,893 (11.1%) over the previous year, according to UNEB. 
“This is higher than the 7.75% recorded in the previous examination in 2020. The average rate of increase before 2020 has been about 2.5% to 3% annually,” Mr Odongo said.

In 2022, analysis by gender shows that 400,100 (48.1%) boys were registered compared to 432,554 (51.9%) girls, indicating that more girls than boys completed the Primary Education cycle. 
“This has been the trend in the last six years,’ Mr Odong added.
According to him, the Board registered 2,436 learners with Special Needs of various categories,
including the blind, the deaf, the physically handicapped and the dyslexics, compared to 1,599 in 2020. This is an increase of 52.3%, the largest rate of increase ever. Of these, 1,153 (47.3%) are females and 1,283 (52.7%) are males.
A total of 1,609 of the candidates needed specialized assistance such as provision of braille, sign language interpreters, transcribers and physical support (amanuensis). The provision of this specialized support presents a big constraint on the Board’s budget.