Gov’t warns Seed Schools against charging UNEB fees

Mukono, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The government has warned administrators of Seed Schools against charging candidates the Uganda National Examinations Board-UNEB registration fees.

According to the Ministry of Education and Sports government, Seed Schools are typical Universal Secondary schools (USE) schools that are not expected to charge candidates because the government pays all their dues including UNEB registration fees.

In 2018, the government embarked on the construction of secondary schools in 615 sub-counties across the country to increase access to secondary education. However, reports show that some administrators of seed schools in Jinja recently sent out circulars asking parents to pay for UNEB registration.

Dr. John Chrysestom Muyingo, the State minister of higher education, says that parents with children in seed schools are only expected to provide their children with food, transport, uniforms and scholastic materials. He asks the parents to report school administrators asking for money outside the specified areas.

Fredrick Kiyingi, the Wakiso District Education Officer –DEO that has four seed secondary schools explains that like the other public USE and UPE schools, candidates in seed secondary schools can only pay the costs to facilitate the registration process like money for passport photos and identity cards.

In February 2022 while releasing the road map for the academic year 2022, UNEB Executive director Dan Odongo, indicated that PLE candidates will pay sh34,000, UCE 164,000 and UACE will pay 186,000. This excluded schools under UPE and USE since the charges were cleared by the government. He also cautioned schools against charging parents extra fees disguised as UNEB registration fees.

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