Government rules out general supplementary exams for candidates who miss UNEB examinations

3 November 2026, 8:15 pm

By Winnie Auma

The Ministry of Education and Sports has ruled out the introduction of general supplementary examinations for candidates who miss their scheduled national examinations, citing legal, financial and administrative challenges.

The State Minister for Education and Sports, Phyllis Chemutai, told Parliament that the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) Act does not provide for a general supplementary examination arrangement for candidates who fail to sit their examinations.

Chemutai said UNEB has also advised that introducing such an arrangement would be difficult to manage and could undermine the integrity of national examinations.

She explained that supplementary examinations could encourage some candidates to deliberately defer their examinations for reasons that do not warrant exceptional consideration.

The minister added that the arrangement would require additional funding to prepare and administer examination papers, provide supervision, process results and undertake other quality assurance measures.

She further noted that the national examination calendar is already fully committed, making it difficult to accommodate another examination cycle, particularly at the Uganda Certificate of Education level.

Chemutai was responding to concerns raised by Kalungu South MP Andrew Kaluya, who said more than 10,000 candidates missed the national examinations last year due to various circumstances, some of which were unavoidable.

Kaluya said the affected candidates included more than 10,000 who missed the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), 2,000 who missed the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations and 1,200 who missed the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations.

He called on government to consider introducing supplementary examinations to give such candidates another opportunity, noting that some end up dropping out of school after missing their final examinations.

However, Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oboth-Oboth called for government intervention to support learners who miss national examinations, noting that most of them do not deliberately skip the exams but are forced to do so by circumstances beyond their control.

The Deputy Attorney General, Jackson Kafuuzi said although the law does not currently provide for supplementary examinations, it could be amended to accommodate candidates who miss examinations under unavoidable circumstances.

He suggested that government could consider setting aside a one-month period within which affected candidates could be allowed to sit their examinations as Parliament considers possible amendments to the law.Kafuuzi also argued that the necessary budgetary adjustments could be made to facilitate the proposed arrangement.

The debate followed concerns raised by Speaker of Parliament Anita Among about the fairness of denying candidates an opportunity to sit examinations due to exceptional family or medical circumstances.