Kampala — Candidates at Mubende Community Polytechnic yesterday got stranded when the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) failed to deliver their examinations.

The polytechnic is one of the institutions in the country, which started their final examinations yesterday.

Polytechnics started with the Commerce examination, while schools with the Advanced Level started with Economics.

The area supervisor, Grace Lwanga, said on realising the exam papers had not been delivered, she contacted UNEB which asked her to send a fax number through which the examinations would be sent.

She added that there was a possibility that the students of Mubende Community Polytechnic were not registered.

"The students' names were not in the registers that were sent to us. We still need to contact the UNEB head office in Kampala. UNEB says that they would cross-check and we shall know the fate of the students today," Lwanga said, adding: "But we decided to have these students sit the exams."

Meanwhile, unlike examinations for primary and Ordinary Level, which were marred by late deliveries and malpractices, Advanced Level exams started smoothly.

Examination papers were delivered on time and most schools had started by 9:00am. There were no reported cases of malpractices.

A total of 89,885 candidates are expected to sit the A'Level examinations. This represents a 20% increase in the number of candidates, in comparison to last year.

UNEB publicist Eva Konde yesterday said: "We are doing our best to iron out the few mistakes that were done at the beginning, in a bid to uplift the standard of examinations in the country."

Today, the students will do history and mathematics.

At Central View High School in Mukono, as one of the Ordinary Level candidates, Sophie Amuge, was clearing with school authorities after her final exams, her 70-year-old father was starting his A'Level examinations.

Boniface Ileut registered for history, economics and divinity.

After sitting for Primary Seven examinations in 1953, Ileut joined Ngora Teachers' Training College, where he qualified as a primary school teacher in 1958.

Additional reporting by Alex Bukumunhe and Ali Mambule