UGANDA NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS BOARD PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE

The Editor, PRESS RELEASE UNEB has established that the examination in Islamic Religious Education (IRE) which was done by UCE candidates on Wednesday 24th October 2012 contained some sections which were outside the syllabus. How this is possible Every year, UNEB receives more than one set of questions in every subject from specially-trained professional teachers appointed as setters. Each set goes through a quality control process that involves moderation to determine its conformity to grammar, interpretation rules and curriculum. Moderation may involve changes on the questions as per guidelines. The moderated questions are then kept in a question bank from which the responsible officer picks a set for printing shortly before commencement of the examinations. The selected questions are proof-read but not necessarily by people with special interest in that area. There is a slight possibility that the officer responsible for the question bank may pick a set of old questions that are no longer on the syllabus, especially in papers like IRE and Literature in English whose content change periodically. The above and other measures are meant to ensure that setters do not know whether the questions they have set or moderated will ever come and if so in which year, and whether or not in their original form. This is one way UNEB has succeeded in eliminating leakage of examinations. UNEB setters and moderators (as well as markers) are not supposed to publicise themselves or reveal their roles in UNEB work to unauthorized persons. Those who violate this undertaking should be reported. The public is further advised to ignore those who may seek favours because they do not know whether or when the questions they generated will come. The way forward

In this particular case of IRE, the entire paper was not invalid. Some sections were outside the syllabus while one was valid. This means that candidates were not completely at as loss but rather they were able to write down something. In view of the foregoing, a committee shall study the extent to which the candidates were disadvantaged and come up with recommendations on the way forward. The committee has two options to consider: 1. Whether the candidates work forms sufficient ground for grading without additional assessment. 2. Whether the previous work should be ignored and the candidates given an alternative paper. The committees recommendation will be informed by its findings on the extent to which the candidates were disadvantaged. NB: 1. IRE is an optional subject which is done by few candidates in few examination centres. Therefore, majority of the candidates are not affected. 2. UCE examinations are ongoing. UNEB will therefore have enough time to administer an alternative paper should the decision be to give a fresh examination. In case this becomes the way to go, extra measures will be put in place to avoid repeating the same mistake. UNEB would like to assure all candidates, parents and other stakeholders that the affected candidates will be compensated in one way or another and will not be treated unfairly. The candidates should therefore remain calm and focus on other papers which they are yet to sit as they await the final decision about IRE. This decision shall be reached and communicated in the shortest possible time.

Hamis Kaheru PPRO - UNEB