Police warn schools over hiking Uneb fees

Police have asked parents to report heads of school charging registration fees for national examinations higher than the one prescribed by the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb).

Uneb last week released the dates for the 2022 national examinations and set registration fees for all schools across the country.

Addressing journalists yesterday, the police spokesperson, Mr Fred Enanga, said it is now an offence for schools to charge more money than what Uneb prescribed.

“I want to ask parents who have paid in excess to carry their receipts and report the case to our CID office at Uneb. They should come with proof of payment with either a receipt or mobile money messages,” Mr Enanga said yesterday.

According to Mr Enanga, Uneb set Shs34,000 for PLE candidates, Shs164,000 for UCE while UACE are to pay Shs186, 000.

He said Uneb set Shs68,000 as late registration fee for PLE candidates, Shs246,000 for UCE, and Shs279,000 for UACE.

Mr Enanga said heads of school, who charge extra money, face 10 years imprisonment or pay a fine of Shs40m or both, according to Section 33 of the Uneb Act 2021. 

Heads of school, however, protest the set fee, saying it does not account for other costs schools incur during the registration of candidates.

The chairperson of National Private Education Institutions Association, Mr Hasadu Kirabira, recently told Daily Monitor in an interview that  they incur extra costs on taking passport photos for candidates, and feeding them, among other expenses .

“We need to sit and agree with the Ministry of Education on the money private schools must charge to cater for all these requirements needed for registration of candidates. Setting the rates on our behalf makes parents think we are extorting money from them when we ask for extra money,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Uneb Executive Director, Mr Daniel Odongo, advised schools to sit with parents and agree on the extra money they want to charge for extra requirements but should not hide under Uneb registration fees.

Registration

According to the timetable that Uneb released last week, registration of candidates for the three sets of examinations kicked off on February 2 and is slated to end on May 31.

Late registration of candidates is slated to set off  from June 1 to June 30.

The examinations will be sat from October to December starting with UCE followed by PLE and UACE.