BY DAMALI MUKHAYE
The Ministry of Education and Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) is set to close five schools for five weeks to provide space for examiners to mark the ongoing national examinations.
The decision has sparked a row with the parents in the affected schools who said that whereas students in other schools will continue to study during the period of examination marking, their children in the five schools will be home without studying.
The parents also said that they are being inconvenienced to pick their children from school and then drop them back after the five weeks of examination marking.
According to the UNEB schedule, all national exams will be completed in May.
When contacted yesterday, UNEB Executive Secretary Daniel Odongo said they need only three weeks for marking the national examinations and all arrangements have been made.
According to the roadmap by the ministry of education, all Senior One students in schools are supposed to report on April 14 but the ministry officials want those in the schools which have been converted into marking centers, to report earlier than that date.
The Ministry’s spokesman Patrick Muinda said the Permanent Secretary has already prepared circulars which will be sent to the five affected schools so that their learners report earlier than their counterparts in other schools. This is to allow them not to lose time because of the five-week closure.
