Uneb blocks school’s registration over pending court case

Twenty-two candidates face an uncertain future after the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) blocked their registration for this year’s exams over an unresolved court case.

With only two days to the closure of the registration, a statement obtained from Uneb portal by the director of studies at Musanya Secondary School in Kamuli, Mr Michael Musaga, reads: “Your centre is blocked from registering UCE candidates Reason: Pending resolution of court case. Contact Uneb for more information.”

This comes after the school in question approached Uneb to express dissatisfaction that their 2022 UCE results were tempered with.

The school demanded that Uneb avail the marked scripts of their candidates to prove what their candidates scored. This was after the school complained that some of their learners were awarded questionable marks.

However, Mr Musaga said Uneb consistently ignored the request.

The director of studies further claimed that when he visited Uneb offices, a lady at the reception asked him to remove some names from the dissatisfaction letter they presented on February 13, 2023. This, she said, will create room for feedback. He said he did not remove the names and he has never received feedback.

Mr Musaga said all of a sudden, Uneb directed him to court, something he heeded to. After that, he said the examination body served him with a letter, claiming that if he wanted to see their scripts, the school should pay Shs10.8m to facilitate the process.

“Retrieval of specific scripts is a costly and tedious process: Costs of retrieval of scripts (Shs110,000 for each script x 30 students= Shs3.3m). Cost of verification: (10 Uneb staff supervising x 150,000 x 5 days = Shs7.5m). The total cost being Shs10.8m,” the letter reads in part.

However, the school deems this unfair when they spent Shs5m on registering 25 students.

Mr Musaga also revealed that their attempts to get lawyers for a case against Uneb has been unsuccessful. He said lawyers show interest the first time but later pull out of the case.

He also told this publication that the deputy head teacher, Mr Ali Kinagani, has since received a phone call, saying they will suffer the consequences of “messing with Uneb.”

He now worries about the future of their former students, whom he said were driven into drug addiction due to frustration from their results.  

When contacted, Ms Jennifer Kalule-Musamba, the Uneb principal public relations officer, dismissed claims of tampering with 2022 results of the school at the marking stage.

“We do not do anything like that; we are very careful about the integrity of our examinations. The only time we send people to examination centres is when they are going to validate the centres. Our marks are not awarded like that. That is really trying to abuse the integrity of Uneb; honestly, we do not operate like that,” she explained.

Ms Kalule also denied claims that Uneb is victimising the school and asked its administrators to focus on resolving the current registration of the learners before the deadline.

“What I know, the people who come are asking for remarking. That is common... The common cases of blocking registration are due to pending invoices. Let them just come to Uneb and see how they can get the portal unblocked,” she said.

“Kindly explain to them that registration is ending in two days and it’s the future of the learners that is at stake. What is at stake right now is not even Uneb or that school. They are talking about an issue in the past and not looking at the present. Let them call me because they have to get the learners registered at whatever cost,” she added.