BUDUDA —A Primary Seven Pupil of Bukari Primary School in Bukibokolo Sub County in Bududa district on Monday collapsed and died in an examination room as pupils started their Primary Leaving Examinations.
The pupil identified as Winnie Kakayi, 14, is among the 21 pupils registered to sit primary leaving examination in the school.
The incident caused tension, with many candidates unsettled. Mr David Kitutu, the school head teacher, said the deceased’s parents had informed him earlier that the child was suffering from malaria but was not treated as parents sought divine intervention for her recovery. Kitutu said that Kakayi collapsed as soon as she started the mathematics paper.
Mr John Wandera, the father of the deceased, said he asked her to stay home since she was sick but insisted that she could not miss an examination she has been preparing for.
Mr Samson Natsambwa, the Bududa district chief administrative officer, regretted the incident.
Meanwhile, there was confusion on Monday as some Primary Seven candidates used Education Management Information System-EMIS numbers attached to each school instead of the random numbers adopted by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB).
UNEB last month announced that they would use random numbers instead of the Education Management Information System numbers that were used last year, to identify schools during the national examination.
But Ms Jennifer Kalule Musumba, the UNEB Public Relations Officer, said that the confusion is being caused by examination invigilators.
“We have received cases and we know that this is something being done by invigilators because they want to us to go back to using EMIS numbers with which schools can easily be identified. We are warning them to stop causing this confusion because it shall not be tolerated,” Ms Musumba said.