Kampala, Uganda: A photograph that went viral on social media, particularly X and Facebook on Tuesday, claiming to show pupils of Gala Primary School in Buyende District sitting for their Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), has been found to be false and misleading.
A metadata analysis and open-source verification carried out by DailyExpress fact-check using Google reverse image search shows that the same photo is a cover image on Holy Cross Comboni Primary School’s official Facebook page, and dates back as far as 2022.
Further scrutiny of the school’s social media activity reveals similar photos of pupils wearing the same uniforms and seated in the same examination arrangement, posted between 2022 and 2023.
The misleading post, which garnered tens of thousands of engagements by opposition propagandists, wrongly attributed the image to Gala Primary School in Buyende District.
But according to Mr Baluye Waiswa Michael, the Office of the National Chairman (ONC) Coordinator for Buyende District, the reports are false as no such school exists in Buyende.
“It has come to my attention that there are circulating claims suggesting that Gala Primary School is located in Buyende District. As a coordinator for ONC in Buyende, I wish to categorically clarify that this information is incorrect and misleading,” Baluye told DailyExpress.
He urged the media and public to verify all educational or community-related claims with official sources before publication.
A further search on the Ministry of Education and Sports school register and Buyende District education database also confirmed that no institution like Gala Primary School operates in the district.
This fact-check aligns with evidence gathered by DailyExpress’s digital verification desk and international open-source platforms, confirming that the image has been online since early 2022 and is not linked to Uganda’s ongoing national examinations.
FINAL VERDICT: FALSE
The viral image does not show pupils sitting PLE exams in Buyende or anywhere in Uganda. Instead, it is an old 2022 photograph taken at Holy Cross Comboni Primary School in Yirol, South Sudan, and has been misused in misleading social media posts.
