Police in Kyotera district have arrested the head teacher of St. Henry\’s Lutti Primary School for allegedly hiring impersonators to sit the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) on behalf of students at the school.
Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that the head teacher had hired five impersonators who were caught by an invigilator at Kyapagi Primary School examination center in Kasaali Town Council, Kyotera district. This is where the candidates from St. Henry\’s Lutti Primary School were sitting for their exams.
The Kyotera District Police Commander, Mr. Hassan Musoba, confirmed the arrest and said the school head will be charged in court together with the impersonators once police investigations are complete.
\”He [the suspect] hired students from a secondary school who were not registered to sit the PLE exams. When the invigilator tried to verify their index numbers, they did not match the names,\” Musoba explained.
The impersonators, aged between 14 and 15, also had fake national ID cards bearing the names and photos of genuine registered candidates.
An anonymous invigilator working for the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) grew suspicious after the hired \”candidates\” seemed to panic during the Mathematics exam on Wednesday morning. He alerted his supervisor, who contacted the police.
The head teacher and impersonators were promptly arrested. Although the impersonators have been allowed to continue writing exams, authorities have sufficient evidence to prosecute them and their results will be nullified, the invigilator said.
According to Kyotera District Inspector of Schools, Mr. Mathias Kigoye, the impersonators aroused suspicion by entering the exam room without proper school uniforms, which is highly irregular during national exams.
Both the head teacher and impersonators have admitted to exam malpractice and impersonation. The impersonators are escorted by detectives to and from the exam center each day to write their papers.
Last year, PLE results for 190 candidates across three Kyotera schools were withheld due to similar allegations of malpractice. The affected schools were Kibumba Primary School, Nabbunga Fountain of Education Primary School, and Solution Primary School.