The Uganda National Examination Board-UNEB has inventyed and app, and is rolling out a nationwide campaign to stop impersonation and other forms of examination malpractices in schools.
The campaign involves the use of a mobile phone application which invigilators will use to verify each candidates index number and level of examination. Upon entering the candidate's particulars as recorded by the school, the app will draw out a picture of the candidate registered in UNEB records.
The app will be rolled out this year as candidates sit for Primary Leaving Examination (PLE), Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations, according to UNEB Executive Secretary Dan Nokrach Odongo.
He is optimistic that the app will eliminate cases of impersonation, collusion, external assistance and smuggling of examination material into the examination room. The same app can be used by candidates to confirm their registration status prior to examination day.
Early this year, the examination body withheld examination results of 64 candidates who sat for UACE exams last year due to examination malpractice. Odongo says that on average, 0.6 percent of the candidates that sit for the examinations are involved in a form of malpractice.
Celestino Obua, the Vice Chancellor of Mbarara University of Science and Technology applauded the use of technology in assessing examinations saying that the advancement of new technology has presented new and more sophisticated devices for cheating. He adds that education assessment bodies like UNEB need to come up with new technologies to combat the vice.
He was speaking at a conference on education assessment now taking place at Speke Resort Munyonyo.