Dr. Patrick Odong’s child sat the 2017 Primary Leaving Examinations at Seeta Parents Primary School in Mukono district but after results were released last week, instead of rejoicing for his child Dr. Odong was sad. “I tried getting the results for my daughter using the phone, I couldn’t get the results. So I have come to the school to see the results for myself but still, the school did not have the results.” Said, Dr. Patrick Odong – Parent. His daughter was among the over 200 to 500 pupils from among schools countrywide whose results the Uganda National Examination Board withheld over cheating and other examination malpractices. “I didn’t send my child to cheat examination, I sent her to learn and pass. Now if the school is teaching my child to cheat then that’s a problem of the school.”
Dr. Odong traveled all the way from Amuru district in Northern Uganda where he works to seek an explanation from the school administration. “She is actually sick, am worried, am a doctor and so am worried about the health of my child, and am not alone; there are many parents who are undergoing this kind of thing.”
Now he is considering seeking Court to redress damages and compensations from the Uganda National Examinations Board and Seeta Parents Primary School. “We shall use all the legal and available means to get the results even if it needs to ask for the scripts where the children wrote their answers.” But where does all this leave Odong’s daughter and other students whose PLE results were canceled? A Professional Counselor has advised parents and affected children not panic to avoid depression. “You can feel like giving up, but the reason why you can't give up is that remember you have spent or invested for 6 years; P.1 to P.6 and the 7th year has proved disappointing. You cannot give up on the 7th year and throw out the 6 years, especially because it is not your own creation.” Said, Sam Ssetumba – Counselor.
A counselor Sam Ssetumba said in this situation, the parents must encourage their children to repeat the class and showing him or her the advantages of doing so. “Positivity from the parent is important to encourage the child that look, we have got a small interference but we are going to be okay. Just focus, read again and you might actually perform better.” According to Friday Robert Kagoro, he is a lawyer at the Uganda National Examination Board. He is legally answerable for the malpractices and for failure to detect and supervise exams. “As UNEB, your incompetency I shouldn’t call it a mistake. Incompetency on part of UNEB. It would be UNEB now to be the accused, they should not accuse the students because it’s UNEB that has failed its obligations.” Said, Friday Robert Kagoro – Lawyer. Kagoro argued that the learners should not pay the price of someone who failed to do their job but Educationist Fagil Mandy disagreed.
“UNEB is mandated to organize examinations and detect malpractices and protect those examinations.” “UNEB bylaw says you must not copy, you must not be aided because they would be testing a wrong person. So UNEB does its job of catching those who were found to have done that. That’s their job as UNEB.” Said, Fagil Mandy – Educationist. Mandy who is the former Chairman of UNEB said the exam board is not to blame but it's the teachers and pupils who did not adequately prepare for the exams and hence the need to chase. “It’s like saying, who is to blame if I stole the company money. Maybe my manager was not supervising me, no; if you stole company money, if you cheated on an examination you are a criminal and the law must take its role.” If indeed Odong petitions Court, it would not be the first time UNEB is sued for canceling or withholding the results of the final National Exams. In 2015, UNEB lost a case where Court ruled in favor of Kabito Primary School and other schools that had sued over the cancellation of their results.
