Headteacher held over hiring ‘mercenaries’ to sit PLE for five candidates

Kyotera, (UG): The Territorial Police in Kyotera District are holding Mr Atanansi Mutesasira, the head teacher of St Henry’s Lutti Primary School on allegations that he hired impersonators to sit Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) for five candidates at the school he heads.

The five mercenaries were reportedly detected by one of the invigilators at Kyapagi Primary School examination centre where candidates from St Henry’s Lutti Primary School are sitting the ongoing national examination papers.

The District Police Commander in Kyotera, Mr Hassan Musoba confirmed Mutesasira’s arrest saying he will be arraigned in court together with the impersonators when police investigations are complete.

“He [the 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,” Mr Musoba told this publication in an interview on Thursday.

Musoba also disclosed that the impersonators aged between 14 to 15 years were found with school identity cards which bore names and photographs of genuine candidates who registered to do the exams.

The invigilator who preferred anonymity due to sensitivity of the report 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,” the invigilator said.

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

“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.

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.

Sourced from Monitor