KAMPALA – The Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has introduced a random number identification system for Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) to help minimize examination malpractice.
In the new guidelines dubbed ‘Regulations on the Conduct and Supervision of PLE 2019’, UNEB has dropped the Education Management Information System (EMIS) numbers that were used last year. The examination body will now provide a random number for each paper sat by candidates.
UNEB Executive Secretary, Mr Dan Odongo, said that the system has performed well for Senior 4 and 6 final exams.
“You will recall that in 2018, UNEB introduced the use of Random Numbers instead of school names. These numbers were tagged to the school EMIS numbers. From this year, the EMIS numbers will not be used, but actual random numbers generated for each center per paper,” Mr Odongo said during a meeting that was convened to reflect on the management of PLE in 2019 last week.
He explained that different numbers will be given to all pupils in all examination centers sitting PLE, beginning with this year.
Mr Odongo added that these numbers will keep changing for every subject throughout the examination period with a view of making it difficult for an examiner to identify which schools or pupils they are assessing.
He said UNEB has designated examination malpractice as a national security issue, which must be a concern of every citizen, starting with district inspector of schools.
“We have to take the fight against examination malpractice as personal crusades. We must be mindful of the mortal damage we are doing to the young children in our schools whom we make pass through the system with the belief that malpractice and corruption are normal ways of life,” Mr Odongo said.
“We must prepare for the kind of country we shall have sooner than later when people who will be in charge of the affairs of the nation are those who will have made their way through cheating. Those will be the doctors, lawyers, engineers, administrators we shall have,” he added.
Over 690,000 pupils are expected to sit for PLE this year.
