By yesterday, a number of schools had not received capitation grants for the term to enable them conduct national examinations which begin today with Senior Four candidates sitting their first practical paper in Physics and Fine Art.
Mr Martin Okiria Obore, the chairperson of Association of Secondary School Head teachers of Uganda (ASSHU), yesterday confirmed that many schools were struggling to prepare for the sub-candidates who will report today after months in lockdown and also manage Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) papers, which start today.
“Exams begin today. But some districts have not received capitation grants making it difficult for head teachers to conduct exams,” Mr Okiria told one of the media houses on behalf of his colleagues.
At Uneb, the board said they hadn’t received the supplementary budget they had asked for to support the additional demands arising out of implementing Covid-19 standard operating procedures.
Earlier, Uneb executive secretary Dan Odongo together with his team appealed to Parliament to add them Shs10.465 billion to enable them recruit more invigilators to cover extra rooms due to the spacing demands of at least two metres apart during the examinations.
Yesterday, Mr Odongo said while Parliament approved their budget request, they have not seen the money. For instance, he explained that a hall, which previously accommodated between 35 to 40 candidates will now have not more than 25 students.
“It has not reached us. We are told Parliament approved the supplementary budget request. But we have not touched the money itself,” Mr Odongo said.
A total of 1,181,940 candidates have registered with Uneb to write their end of cycle examinations at levels of P7, S4 and S6.
Mr Odongo told Parliament that they needed an additional 19,910 invigilators to the 39,183 they had earlier planned to hire. Each of these would be earning Shs48,500 per day. Because of Covid-19, the spacing between candidates during an examination room has been reduced from 1.2 metres apart to 2 metres as recommended by Ministry of Health.
Uneb has cautioned invigilators to ensure all candidates observe SOPs of hand washing, recording individual temperature and wearing face masks .
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