There is panic among teachers, parents and candidates of St. Christine Primary school in Kakumiro district after they have all failed to access the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results for 2022 that were released on Friday.
The Uganda National Examinations Board released the 2022 Primary Leaving Examinations results today showing an improvement in performance overall compared to the last two years’ performance.
Candidates, parents, and other interested parties can use the Short Message Services (SMS) on mobile telecom networks to check for the results. This can be done by typing PLE Followed by a space, the candidate’s index number, and send to 6600.
However, for the P.7 Candidates of St, Christine Primary school, efforts by parents, teachers and the candidates to access the results have proved futile since the release of the exams.
This has caused tension and panic, among the candidates and their parents fearing that UNEB could have withheld their results.
The candidates earlier missed the Mathematics papers during their PLE on November 8th, 2022 when they arrived one hour and fifteen minutes late contrary to the UNEB rules and regulations that indicate that PLE starts at exactly 9 am.
The affected candidates had registered at Mpasana primary school UNEB center in Mpasana town council.
It later emerged that the school authorities failed to transport the candidates to the UNEB center in time. The candidates walked for 15 kilometers to the UNEB center to write the exams but couldn’t make it on time. They were, however, allowed to write the remaining papers.
UNEB instituted a team to investigate the circumstances, under which the candidates missed the mathematics paper.
The investigations put the blame squarely on the school administration prompting the examination body and the Ministry of Education and Sports to agree to administer a special mathematics paper for the candidates not to affect their education cycle.
UNEB set November 30th as the date for the candidates to write the special paper at Kyakuterekera Primary school, which is about 4km from St. Christine primary school which is also under Mpasaana primary school UNEB center.
Doreen Karungi, one of the candidates, says she tried checking for her results with details availed by UNEB, but she has since failed. “I tried, my father too tried severally to access the results in vain,” said Karungi. This situation has puzzled Karungi together with her parents.
Andrew Mugisa, another candidate says he is worried that UNEB could have withheld their results since all the candidates who sat for the exam under Mpasana center have not yet accessed their results including those in the government-aided school.
Sylvia Atuhaire, another candidate explains that she severally tried to access the results using her index number and other details availed by UNEB in vain.
Pascal Asiimwe, the headteacher St. Christine Primary school told Uganda Radio Network in a telephone interview on Friday evening that he too tried to access the results of the candidates in vain fearing something wrong must be happening with the results. He however calls on the candidates and parents to be calm.
Teopista Namayanja, the headteacher Mpasana Primary school, the PLE UNEB center where the candidates sat for their exams too told URN in a telephone interview that she tried to access the results of both St. Christine and Mpasaana primary schools in vain saying she is also stranded with nothing to do.
Mary Kyofuna, the Kakumiro District Inspector of schools says she too has failed to access the results of all candidates who sat under Mpasaana Primary school UNEB center.
She says when she contacted UNEB, she was told to be patient by UNEB officials who say that the problem could be attributed to slow network connectivity. She says out of the 4,334 candidates who wrote the exams in the district, by press time she had accessed results for only 2,000 Candidates.
Deogratius Ndahare, a parent says that he is currently disturbed after he severally tried to check the results for his son in vain. He wants the district Education department to come up with a clear statement.
Juddy Tindimuyeba, another parent wants the Education authorities to do all it takes to have the PLE results for their children accessed immediately.
Emmanuel Mpirirwe, the chairperson of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) says parents flocked the school after learning that UNEB had released the results.
The examinations were conducted on November 8 and 9, 2022, with a total of 832,810 candidates registered from 14,153 examination centers.
51.9 percent of the total registered candidates were females and 48.1 percent were males. 583,769 were funded under the Universal Primary Education-UPE program, and 249,041 were non-UPE candidates.