NATIONWIDE — A myriad of disruptions, some natural, others man-made, conspired to disrupt the first day of Primary Leaving Examinations around the country today.
At many examination storage centres, there were no teachers to receive the materials while in several schools, by 9 am some candidates had not yet arrived in classes to sit for their first examination.
In Rakai, available information indicates that exams have been delivered late as flooded roads made movement difficult.
At Jinja road police station, only one examination coordinator was at the centre.
Eve Konde, the Kampala Area Supervisor told Uganda Radio Network that the rains had disorganized the distribution of the exam materials, but she was optimistic that it will not affect the examinations.
“We normally sit for these exams during the rainy season so people should not be very shocked about what is happening. Some schools might be late but it should not be a very big issue,” she was quoted as saying.
At the Nabweru examination storage centre, the distribution of exams begun as early as 7:00 am despite UNEB regulations that state the process is supposed to start at 8:30 am.
Innocent Lwanga, the Municipal Education Officer says they started early to enable the distribution is carried out smoothly.
“We started early to have a smooth distribution process. It is raining so we wanted schools to be able to pick papers as they walk in. We know the rain will cause some delays,” he said.
During national examination days, pupils are encouraged to be at school as early as 7:30 a.m or even earlier. However at 8:20 am, pupils were still entering schools soaked through to the skin.
Some schools had no teachers present while examination coordinators were absent.
According to UNEB examination guidelines, candidates unless those registered as sick suffering from asthma are not allowed to sit for exams while wearing sweaters. This is done to avoid the smuggling of unwanted material.
In other parts of the country, the situation was not any different. In some hard to reach areas of Kyotera and Rakai headteachers said they that they were stranded.
In Luwero, the heavy downpour started at around 7:20 am paralyzing transportation of exams to schools.