Head teacher arrested over hiring ‘mercenaries’ to sit PLE for five candidates

Police in Kyotera District are holding the head teacher of St Henry’ s Lutti Primary School teacher for allegedly hiring  impersonators to sit Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) for learners at the school.
Preliminary police investigations show that Atanansi Mutesasira hired five impersonators who were detected by one of the invigilators at Kyapagi Primary School examination centre, Kasaali Town Council in Kyotera District, where candidates from St Henry’s Lutti Primary School are sitting their national examination papers from.

Kyotera District Police Commander, Mr Hassan Musoba confirmed Mutesasira’s arrest saying he will be arraigned in court together with the impersonators when police investigations are complete.
"He [suspect] hired learners from one of the secondary schools that were not registered to sit PLE and when the invigilator tried checking their index numbers, they were not corresponding with their names." he said in an interview on Thursday.

The impersonators aged between 14 to 15 years also had identity cards which bore names and photographs of genuine candidates who registered to do the exams.
An invigilator working with Uganda Examinations Board (Uneb) who preferred anonymity because they not authorized to speak for the examining body, said he became suspicious after seeing the hired candidates panicking during the first paper, Mathematics on Wednesday morning.
"I alerted my supervisor who also called the police which swang into action and arrested the head teacher and later the impersonators," he said.

Although the hired candidates were allowed to write their final papers, available evidence is enough to prosecute them and their results will be canceled, according to the invigilator.

“The Uneb guidelines do not allow an officer at the lower level to disqualify someone from sitting the exams even when he or she is suspected to be an impersonator. It is the Uneb security to prove that,” he said.

According to Mr Mathias Kigoye, the Kyotera District inspector of schools, the impersonators entered the examination room without putting on the school uniform which is unusual during national exams.
“The good thing is that both the head teacher and the impersonators have admitted that they had been involved in malpractice and impersonation,” he said.

Last year, PLE results for 190 candidates from three different schools in Kyotera District were withheld over alleged malpractice. The schools included Kibumba Primary School, Nabbunga Fountain of Education Primary School and Solution Primary School.