NAGURU – Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni has ordered that the practice of giving pre-registration tests to pupils must stop immediately.
Releasing the Primary Leaving Examinations at the Kampala Parents School at Naguru on Friday, January 17, Janet Museveni said there could be more and more pupils sitting exams if only some schools can stop the behaviour of pre-registration examinations.
“Teachers must stop dictating the destiny of young people,” she warned adding that “We will sooner than later have no illiterate people. This is because, every year, the number of those who graduate at various levels increase just like it has done in these PLE2019 Results”.
The minister, whose remarks rotated mainly against teachers’ involvement in malpractice and pre-registration tests, said it is sad to know that teachers and parents are leading students into examination Mal-practices.
“Some students failed because led them into Malpractice and found different questions in the exams,” she noted.
Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) officials have revealed that at least 61 persons have so far been arrested and in various parts of the country and charged in relation to exam malpractice.
UNEB Executive Secretary said schools that bought their fake papers disorganized schools and candidates.
Odongo said results of 1,512 candidates have been withheld pending investigations much as it is much lower than the 3,346 withheld in 2018 PLE.
He said that results of candidates have been withheld over suspected malpractices, pending investigations.
Following the fake papers circulated on Social Media prior to the exams, Odongo says markers found in some candidates’ scripts excuses such as “this is not the paper we are to do,” “this is not our examination”.
He has urged the government to develop tougher punishments in the law so as to tame the malpractice.
He said that all candidates whose results have been withheld will be accorded a fair hearing by the Board’s Examination security Committee. Those cleared will have their results released and headteachers can pick up the results at 3 pm from UNEB offices in Ntinda.
This year, of the 695,804 students who sat, 617,150 students passed the 2019 PLE exams. This is more than last year’s 599,593 candidates.
How do I check results on Phone?
Mr. Odongo said that any person wishing to access results can do so through their mobile phones.
Go to the message menu and type ‘PLE’, leave space, type correct candidate index number and then send it to 6600.”
This is the official procedure announced by the authorities.
How to send the message to know your PLE results
To access the service, he said a user should simply send an SMS from a mobile phone to code number 6600 on Airtel Uganda or MTN Uganda.
To construct a valid SMS, users should enter a prescribed keyword followed by their index number and send the SMS to 6600.
The user should then receive his/her examination results or registration details instantly.
Each SMS sent to 6600 is charged UGX. 500 on both Airtel and MTN networks, therefore, users must ensure that they have enough credit on their phones.
UNEB says the SMS service is voluntary.
For example PLE REG space Index number
e.g. REG4 U1016/502.
