KAMPALA: The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has appealed to school heads to give chance to candidates who are expectant young mothers to sit and complete their Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations.
This is after a candidate gave birth during Tuesday’s exam at Light Secondary School in Soroti City.
According to UNEB Spokesperson Jennifer Kalule, the student went into labour while writing the morning paper and was assisted to a normal and safe delivery by nurses from a nearby health facility, after which she continued with the exam while her parents took care of the newborn.
The Ministry of Education and Sports, Spokesperson Dr Dennis Mugimba explained that the Minister took action to safeguard candidates who have been duly registered with the UNEB.
“It has been drawn to the attention of the Acting Minister of Education and Sports, Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, that some schools are denying UNEB-registered candidates who have outstanding school fees and/or charges from sitting their end-of-cycle examinations”, Dr Mugimba said.
“Therefore, the Acting Minister of Education and Sports has directed that any UNEB -registered candidate must be allowed to sit his or her end-of-cycle exams irrespective of whether he or she has any outstanding school fees or charges owed to the respective school”.
This comes after the ministry of education issued a directive instructing all school heads to immediately permit every registered candidate to write their ongoing UCE examination, regardless of whether they have uncleared school fees or operational charges.
The order was triggered by a wave of public complaints revealing that several headteachers across the country had blocked fully registered learners from entering examination rooms over unpaid school dues.
Rather than turning candidates away at the examination center gates, the ministry outlined a clear administrative mechanism for headteachers to recover unpaid balances without disrupting national assessment schedules.
The ministry rooted the enforcement of the directive in existing legal frameworks, citing Section 3(1) of the Education (Pre-Primary, Primary, and Post-Primary) Act, 2008, which mandates the minister responsible for education to ensure national policies and constitutional objectives are upheld at all levels of learning.
Under Section 3(2)(a) of the same Act, the minister is empowered to initiate necessary education policies and reforms as circumstances arise.
The 2026 UCE exams which commenced on Monday October 12th enter day three today, with candidates sitting for Geography in the morning and Biology in the afternoon.
A total of 503,214 candidates are registered for the 2026 examinations, comprising 238,426 males and 264,788 females.
This year’s sitting marks a major milestone in Uganda’s education sector, as the current cohort represents the third group of learners to be assessed under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
The examinations, running under the theme; “Advancing excellence in assessment and certification through secure, credible, inclusive and iinovative processors,” will conclude on November 3, following final papers in foreign languages including Latin, German, French, Arabic and Chinese.
