Assessment body Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) says it has fired officials named in the marks for sale scandal.
In response to reports of alleged altering of marks by its staff, Uneb confirmed that indeed some of its staff had attempted to trade marks for money.
Uneb executive secretary and director Dan Odongo said that the board’s security system had found that two officials had tried to change marks for some candidates.
“Uneb has instituted strong layers of security that are able to detect any form of malpractice related to altering of scores/marks of candidates,” noted Odongo.
“It is through such measures that the Board’s security system was able to quickly discover the attempts by two members of staff to tamper with scores of candidates.
He further sought to assure education stakeholders that the problem was not as big as it had been portrayed in the media reports.
Reports had indicated that “the said officers have been contacted by schools since 2018” but Odongo said “no evidence of security breaches has been found.”
“It is also not true that over 20 members of staff were implicated in the alleged malpractice. Thorough investigations did not reveal involvement of any other officers,” he added.
As soon as the suspected malpractice was detected, the suspects were handed over to Police for further investigations.
According to Odongo, the implicated staff assured the board that they were trying to change the marks for money for the first time.
“They also confessed that they were attempting to do this for the first time. It is therefore not true, as indicated in the social media report, that this kind of malpractice has been going on for some yeas,” he said.
“The Board re-validated scores on the scripts from the suspected centres and established that the perpetrators had not succeeded in altering any scores in the systems.”
The Uneb boss also confirmed that the named officials were fired from the Uganda National Examinations Board after they admitted to trying to change marks.
“The two culprits were subjected to the Board’s internal disciplinary processes, where they pleaded guilty to making attempts to tamper with the marks,” Odongo further said.
“Due to the gross nature of violation of the Board’s values, the two members of staff have been dismissed from the services of the Board.”
Uneb has assured the public that its systems are strong enough to detect and deter fraud, calling on schools, parents and students to “stay calm and not be alarmed” by media reports.
“The Board has a zero tolerance policy to examination malpractice, particularly adulteration of marks at any stage,” said Odongo.
“Management hereby reassures the public that UNEB has strong and effective Quality Assurance measures that ensure the validity and reliability of scores of candidates at any level.”
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