UCE candidates at Global Secondary School Madudu attend briefing on October 14, 2022. PHOTO/DAN WANDERA
Parents sacrifice everything for their children’s education. School fees come before luxuries, and for many, even before basic needs. They believe that as long as their child is in a "good" school, the future is secure. But what if that trust is misplaced?
A colleague of mine recently found himself in utter disbelief. He had done everything right; he paid school fees on time, attended school meetings, and trusted that his child received the best education possible. But when the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results were released, his child had been registered under a completely different school. A school he had never even heard of. Confused and furious, he started asking questions, only to uncover a well-hidden secret: his child had been quietly transferred to another school to sit for exams.
This isn’t a clerical error. It’s a deliberate, deceitful practice that many prestigious schools engage in. When they anticipate that certain learners might not score highly, they quietly move them to "average” schools to protect their pass rates. Parents remain in the dark until the results day when they realise their child, whom they enrolled in a top school, was deemed unworthy of sitting under its name.
If a parent sued a school for secretly registering their child elsewhere, it could expose widespread malpractice and force the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) and the Ministry of Education to act. Schools could face fines, licences should be revoked, or they should face legal action for fraud. Beyond financial loss, the emotional toll on students could also warrant compensation. However, legal proceedings come at a cost, with court fees and lawyer charges ranging from Shs2 million to Shs10 million. A successful case could set a precedent, restoring accountability and trust in Uganda’s education system.
Imagine the humiliation of a child usually aged between 11 and 13, who after years of wearing a school badge with pride, is suddenly told, ‘you will sit exams elsewhere’. Imagine the confusion of a parent who has spent millions on fees, only to discover their child has been discarded like an unwanted item. The worst part? This deception isn’t just about school ratings, it’s about the message we send to our children. That their worth is determined by grades, not effort. That honesty is secondary to appearances. That success can be engineered rather than earned.
The Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) grading system recently changed, eliminating the traditional First, Second, Third, and Fourth Grade classifications. Instead, students are now grouped under Results 1, 2, 3, and 4. This system is designed to among others, reduce cut-throat competition among schools. But while the move was well-intended, it has left many parents struggling to interpret their children’s performance. And schools, still desperate to market themselves as "the best," continue to manipulate results in whatever way they can.
Education should never be a game of deception. Parents should not be forced to decipher hidden schemes behind glossy brochures and staged academic rankings. Students should not have to live in fear that their school might abandon them when it matters most. It is time for urgent accountability. Schools engaging in this practice must be exposed and penalised.
Parents must demand transparency about how schools handle exam registration. And perhaps most importantly, we must redefine success in education, shifting our focus from artificial grades to true learning.
If we allow this trend to continue, we will raise a generation that values short cuts over hard work, deception over integrity, and numbers over real knowledge.
Uganda’s education system must stand for more than just rankings. It must stand for the truth.
Ismail Kusemererwa is the executive director of MidWestern Regional Anticorruption Coalition. kusemererwa.com @kusemererwa_
