Africa-Press – Uganda. The Uganda National Examination Board (Uneb) is expected to recruit 60,000 examination officials, including invigilators, superiors, scouts, and security officials to oversee the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) slated for November 8 to 9 .
The exam body registered an increase in the number of PLE candidates from 749,809 in 2020 to 832,839 this year. It did not set exams last year due to the Covid-19-induced lockdown.
Speaking in Kampala yesterday at the annual seminar for inspectors of schools on preparations for the exams, the Uneb Executive Director, Mr Daniel Odongo, said the increase calls for extra manpower .
Mr Odongo said the board will recruit about 6,000 officials to handle PLE exams. These include 33,395 invigilators,11,539 scouts,10,356 supervisors, and 2,765 security officers. The board hired 41,469 examination officials in 2020.
According to Mr Odongo, Uneb pays about Shs40,000 to each invigilator on a daily basis.
“We are first assessing and budgeting for the money we have. If it is not enough to take care of all the hired people, we will ask the government for a supplementary budget,” he said.
Uganda Certificate of Education exams start on October 16 and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education on November 21. Mr Odongo said they are in the process of printing all the three sets of examinations.
“About 80 people have camped at Uneb up to October 16 when exams will be dispatched to examination centres. These are not allowed to communicate to anyone outside apart from me,” he said.
The State Minister for Primary Education, Ms Joyce Kaducu, threatened to name and shame schools involved in exams malpractice.
Uneb also said they would work with district inspectors of schools to avoid weather disruptions.
Car tracking
The examination manager, Mr James Turyatemba, said Uneb has started discussions to install tracking devices in cars that will be transporting examinations.
He said these will send a signal if the packages being delivered are tempered with, including the location of where the incident is happening.
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
