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S4 candidate dies after exam, fees defaulters turned away
Candidates sit an exam on Tuesday. Some students in up-country schools were turned away over fees issues. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
What you need to know:
In other centres, candidates reportedly dodged exams without explanation.
Countrywide
A student at Nalinya Lwantale Girls School in Luweero District was found dead soon after she sat for a chemistry practical in the on-going O-Level examinations. Teachers described Catherine Nanziri, 17, as a star student, who was expected to excel in the exams. Her body was found hanging by the neck at her guardian’s rented room in Ndejje Town.
Police in the area and local council officials say they are treating the matter as a suspected suicide. “Suspicious neighbours who saw her entering the room forced the door open after waiting for more than an hour,” area councillor George William Muwayire said. “They found the body hanging in this room. They made an alarm but nothing could be done since she was already dead. We are waiting for an official police report and the investigations they are conducting now.”
A teacher at the school, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “We are just learning from some of her friends that she has always made jokes that she is tired of this world but none of them took her words seriously.” Reports by the teacher that Nanziri’s sister had died in a suspected suicide after sitting an exam could not be independently verified. Nanziri’s body was later taken to the City Mortuary in Kampala for post-mortem.
No exams
Meanwhile, scores of Senior Four candidates in several districts were turned away from examination centres after they reportedly failed to clear school dues. In Bugambe SSS in Hoima District, nine students, who had been denied to sit the exams, quickly rallied parents, villagers and local leaders to ask the school authorities to allow them sit the exams.
The candidates had reportedly failed to pay Shs20,000 lunch fee.
Bugambe Sub-county chairperson, Mr John Bahemuka, said his office intervened after learning of the development. “We have held a meeting with the school administrators and resolved that all candidates sit the exams irrespective of whether they have outstanding balances or not,” Mr Bahemuka said on Tuesday.
In Kabarole District, Mr Patrick Ayebale, was shocked after he was told that he could not do his exams over outstanding fees balances. “I am an orphan. My parents died in 2007 and I am the one heading the family of four. My guardian has been helping to pay my school fees but she has her own problems that failed her to clear school dues,” Mr Ayebale, who had registered from Kabarole Adventist SS, said.
In Ntungamo District, four students were barred from sitting the exams. At St. Charles SS, two candidates reportedly paid the money but were not registered, while Ntungamo SS and Brainstorm had one candidate each missing the exams.
Intervention
The district inspector of schools, Mr David Kyahurwa, said: “I have asked the schools to consider the years students have spent and allow them to do the exams so that other issues can be cleared after,” He said the head teacher who had received the money for registration had left. “The biggest problem is with management, especially in private schools where the system is not streamlined and head teachers are at the mercy of proprietors.
At some centres, candidates snubbed some compulsory papers. Uneb deputy secretary in-charge of secondary examinations, Mr Dan Odongo, said this was a strange scenario since all candidates must sit all the compulsory papers. “What I know is that some centres could be having private candidates who registered for exams but do different practical papers basing on the arrangement but for compulsory papers, all have to do them,” he said.
Back to class
Meanwhile, renown businessman David Katumwa, who runs the Katumwa Sports Centre, is one of the candidates sitting the exams at a private centre in Kampala.
