More than 300,000 senior four candidates begin their final examinations this morning from 3,453 exam centres across the country.
Of these, 157,395 students attend schools under the Universal Secondary Education (USE) while the rest are from non-USE schools. The candidates will sit three papers today, starting with Physics practicals in the morning, and Art and Shorthand in the afternoon.
Dan Nokrach Odongo, the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) executive secretary, urged candidates not to panic throughout the examinations.
“The questions are all set from the syllabus from which you have prepared and there is no reason why you should not answer the questions satisfactorily,” Odongo said.
The exams, that are estimated to cost over Shs 2bn, have nearly achieved the gender parity with female candidates making up about half (49.1 per cent) of the total candidature.
Uneb has deployed slightly over 1,600 scouts for the month-long exercise that will last until November 23. With results of about 1,067 candidates cancelled last week, Uneb has warned parents, teachers and even candidates from bribing field officers or paying for fake question papers that unscrupulous persons tend to con people with, around examination time.
For all the three levels of examinations (UCE, PLE and UACE), Uneb will examine a total of 1,068,224 candidates.