Parents of pupils from Nyamarwa and Kitovu Primary Schools in Nyamarwa Sub-county, Kibaale District, have been left shocked after the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) ordered 106 candidates to repeat Primary Seven following examination malpractice in the 2025 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE).
The affected pupils appeared before the UNEB Security Committee on Tuesday, March 10, at Kyambogo, where they reportedly pleaded guilty to malpractice charges.
According to the committee, investigations confirmed that the candidates received external assistance while answering the Integrated Science paper. During questioning, many of the pupils failed to explain why their answers were similar.
Following the hearing, UNEB cancelled the results of 106 candidates and directed them to repeat Primary Seven this year, and only 2 candidates had their results released.
The 106 candidates were sitting their PLE at two examination centres, which had registered 109 candidates in total.
However, one candidate did not sit the examinations, leaving 108 candidates who completed the papers. Out of these, only two pupils were cleared of wrongdoing and had their results released.
The two candidates whose results will be released are Movad Nuwamanya (011226/017) and Priscilla Komuhangi (011226/008) from Kitovu Primary School.
UNEB had earlier withheld results from Nyamarwa Primary School (Centre No. 011222) and Kitovu Primary School (Centre No. 011226) when the 2025 PLE results were released on January 30, following allegations of examination malpractice.
At Kitovu Primary School, the sitting center, 26 candidates had registered for the examination, although one did not show up. Ten of the candidates at the centre were from Freedom City Muriika, a privately owned school.
At Nyamarwa Primary School, 83 candidates were registered, many of whom came from private schools, including Nyamarwa Progressive, Holy Rosary, St. Peter’s, and God’s Grace Primary Schools.
Movad Muhumuza, the father of Movad Nuwamanya, whose results were released, expressed relief after learning that his son’s results would finally be released.
However, other parents whose children’s results were cancelled expressed concern about the financial burden of their children repeating Primary Seven.
Samson Barihikya, the father of Samuel Musinguzi, whose results were cancelled, said the decision would force them to incur additional education costs, the money they would use for secondary level.
Barihikya said his son had always performed well academically, and the cancellation of his results came as a shock.
Head teachers from the affected centres, Gerald Mugenyi and Anthony Birimumaiso, said they had no option but to encourage the pupils to repeat the class.
Kibaale District Education Officer, John Talagaboine, also urged school administrators to subsidize school fees for the affected pupils to ease the burden on parents.
The cancellation comes barely a week after UNEB also cancelled the results of 66 candidates of Kiira Primary School in Jinja over suspicious maths results that pointed to cheating.