By Six primary school teachers were last evening arraigned before court and sent to prison for allegedly being in possession of examination papers.
The accused teachers, Ms Daniel Oleja, 23, Mr Micheal Ijalla, 25, Mr Tendo Lukyamuzi, 22, Mr Henry Mirembe, 31, Mr Nasser Sekandi, 31, and Mr Emmanuel Okechi, were accused of leaking examination papers for Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).
We have not yet independently verified if the papers are similar to those that have been set by Uneb.
The six, who were paraded before Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court, denied being in unauthorised possession of examination materials contrary to Section 25(1) and (4) of the UNEB ACT 2021.
Presiding Chief Magistrate Ronald Kayizzi sent them on remand after they failed to present sureties to bail them out.
During the late afternoon court session, the magistrate explained to the teachers that they have a right to apply for bail if they have sureties with introductory letters from their local council areas.
“In regards to the new bail guidelines by the Chief Justice, an applicant must present an introductory letter showing where they stay from their local council,” Magistrate Kayizzi said before remanding the suspects until October 30.
The group was arrested following an intelligence operation by both the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) officials and the police after the suspects shared social media links with their contacts to the different schools.
Alleged mission
Prosecution alleges that in the month of September and October, within Kampala surrounding areas, the suspects were found in possession of information which purports to relate to the content of PLE question papers for English, Science, Social Studies and mathematics for the year 2023.
The State led by Mr Ivan Kyazze told court that investigations into the matter were still ongoing.
He asked for more time to allow the State to complete the inquiries and arrest more suspects.
A source at Uneb privy to the matter said the suspects got examination papers and inserted Uneb logos and lured school directors into buying them, purporting that they are the exact set examination papers for this year.
According to the source, the suspected teachers had more than 1,000 clients in their social media groups.
“The teachers scam school directors and parents into buying PLE examination papers and Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) papers. They are masquerading as Uneb officials,” the source said.
According to the released examination roadmap by Uneb on September 6, the first set of the final examinations are the UCE that start today with briefing of candidates.
The writing of examinations starts on Monday next week with Geography Paper 1 and Paper 2.
UCE examinations will run until November 17.
PLE is the second set of examinations which will be conducted from November 7 to November 9, starting with the briefing of the candidates on November 7.
The writing of the examinations will commence on November 8, with Mathematics and Social Studies and on the following day, the candidates will write Science and English papers.
UACE will be the third and last set of examinations to be conducted from November 10, with the briefing of candidates.
The candidates will sit for their examination papers from November 14, starting with Economics Paper 1 and Chemistry in the morning and Economics Paper 2 in the afternoon.
UACE examinations is slated to end on December 1.
The law
Anyone found leaking examination papers will either face 10 years in prison or pay a Shs40 million fine as stipulated in the Uneb Act of 2021.
Section 25 of the Uneb Act provides for unauthorised possession of examination paper, material or information.
Section 25 (1) provides that a person who willfully before or during an examination has in his or her possession or under his or her control or who attempts to gain possession of any examination paper or any part of an examination paper, examination material, any other material or information which purports to relate to the contents of any examination paper or material or information for that examination, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand currency points or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both.
Section 25 (4) states that for purposes of proving an offence under this section, it shall not be necessary for the prosecution to prove that the examination paper, examination material, any other material or information is genuine or not.
According to the new Bill dubbed Uneb Bill 2020, once passed into law, anyone caught cheating national examinations, will be jailed for 10 years or pay a fine of Shs40 million or both.
