The Executive Secretary of the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has warned invigilators, parents, school leaders and candidates against malpractice.

Daniel Odongo made the comments on Friday as Senior Four candidates across the country gathered in their respective schools for briefing ahead of the start of the examinations. According to the timetable, senior four examinations start with Physics Practical and Fine Art Still life/ Nature on October 14. The examinations will run till November 15.

Odongo says that malpractices have been caused by the collusion of candidates and invigilators sponsored by parents and school leaders. He says all this will come to an end due to unannounced scouts who are going to be deployed at different examination centres and those who will be caught in action will pay for it.

“We are going to have scouts, people who are going to move in centres unannounced. Particularly, if we have reasons to suspect that the particular centre might either be indulging in or planning to be indulging in this external assistance which is done at class room level, the culprits will definitely be imprisoned,” Odongo warned.

Examination malpractice has remained a concern to UNEB and the Ministry of Education. Last month several teachers were arrested on allegations of selling what UNEB and the police called fake examination papers.

Odongo further said that another way to avoid the instances of malpractice is for head teachers to take their responsibilities in fighting the vice.

The police through its spokesperson, Fred Enanga, have promised to deploy enough security at examination centres and in the process of keeping and transporting UNEB examination papers to their respective centres.

Candidates have been advised to write what they have in their heads and also to avoid using social media and informal style of English writing which was one of the major causes of last year’s failure.

Over 337,000 senior four candidates were briefed on Friday ahead of their examinations which will commence with physics practical paper on Monday.  Of these, 169,058 are girls whereas 169,639 are boys.