Police in Kampala have arrested a director of studies and three teachers for allegedly sharing fake papers for the forthcoming Primary Leaving Examinations.
Kevin Bakashaba, the director of studies at Kimongole Primary School, Vincent Muheeki, a teacher at Vision Primary School in Ibanda, Albert Pabeku, a teacher at Stone Rigdge Primary School in Kira in Wakiso district and Hosea Oyet a teacher at Dignitory Primary School in Rukungiri were arrested from various locations after allegedly creating a WhatsApp group where they were sharing fake PLE papers.
The 2024 PLE exams start on Wednesday.
According to the UNEB spokesperson, Jeniffer Kalule, in the group, the quartet added teachers to whom they were sharing the fake papers.
"They were telling the members of the WhatsApp group that they were getting the papers from UNEB and that they were going to share more after the briefing the candidates today," Kalule said.
The UNEB spokesperson said following the arrest of the quartet, their accomplices have since fled into hiding but noted that police are still on the hunt for them.
Section 25 (2) of the UNEB Act 2021 states that a person who willfully or negligently, assists or causes any candidate to obtain or gain unauthorized possession of any examination paper, examination material, any other material and information, commits an offence and is liable on conviction, to a fine, not exceeding 2,000 currency points equivalent to shs40 million or a term of imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or both.
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Kalule said that it doesn't matter whether the material or information a person is found with is the true examination paper.
"Whether this information or material is the true UNEB paper or false, the suspect is liable on conviction to 2,000 currency points,"she said.
"We expect these four suspects to appear in courts of law any time. Their schools are to be put in category of red schools as far as UNEB is concerned that during exams we shall put a big team of scouts to monitor the exams and the same alertness will be accorded during the marking of their papers."
The UNEB spokesperson warned teaches, parents and candidates against exam malpractice that she said is highly punishable.
The development comes a day to the kick off of on Wednesday.
A total of 798,771 candidates will sit PLE exams this year, 379,414 of which, representing 47.4% being males and the remaining 419,357 being females.
UNEB has deployed 13,000 scouts and nearly 600 security personnel to guard these exams.
