State Minister for Higher Education John Chrysestom Muyingo has vowed to arrest all head teachers for denying students opportunity to sit for their 2025 Examinations.
Addressing media in Kampala Muyinga said its criminal for Head Teachers to deny students from sitting their examinations after parents paying school fees.
In the same spriit Muyingo has appealed to teachers across the country to abandon the strike to ensure peaceful examination period.
Over 432,000 Senior Four candidates across the country have commenced their Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations despite an ongoing teachers’ strike that has sparked uncertainty over supervision and administration of the national exams.
The examinations, conducted by the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb), mark the official start of the 2025 national examination season, with candidates sitting for Geography Paper One in the morning and Biology (Theory) in the afternoon.
According to UNEB Executive Director Daniel Odongo a total of 432,159 candidates are registered to sit for this year’s UCE exams compared to 379,748 last year—an increase of 12.1 percent. Of these, 52.7 percent are females, while 47.3 percent are males, a reflection of Uganda’s improving gender balance in secondary education.
The examinations are being held in 4,308 centres nationwide under the theme, “Embracing security and holistic assessment of learners in a dynamic environment.” The Board says the theme underscores integrity and fairness throughout the examination process.
Mr Odongo attributed the surge in candidature to improved enrolment in both government and private schools, boosted by the Universal Secondary Education (USE) program. Out of the total candidates, 154,637 (36%) are beneficiaries of the USE initiative, while 241,246 are privately sponsored.
The Board also registered 679 Special Needs Education (SNE) candidates who require extra support, with 190 specialized personnel deployed to assist them during the examination period.
While Uneb acknowledged the teachers’ concerns in the ongoing industrial action, ED Odongo urged them not to link the strike to the conduct of national examinations, describing teachers as “key partners in safeguarding the integrity of national assessments.”
“We ask for their indulgence to join us for a few days to help in the effective assessment of the learners they have taught over the years,” he appealed.