Head teacher arrested for embezzling examination fees, issuing fake results

Kole, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Denis Obal, the header teacher of Sr. Gabriella Memorial Comprehensive Secondary School in Kole district is in police custody for alleged theft of student’s exams registration fees.

Trouble for Obal started after senior four leavers from his school failed to access their Uganda Certificate Education-UCE results several days after Uganda National Examination Board-UNEB released them.

It is alleged that Obal only remitted Shillings 600,000 from the over Shillings 7million he collected from 35 candidates to UNEB. This promoted the exam body to withhold the candidate’s results pending the clearance of the examination fees.

After failing to access their results, the learners decided to seek help from the police, which swung into action and picked up the headteacher. Richard Obang, one of the affected candidates says that he tried accessing his results online in vain.

Several candidates say that they are under pressure from their parents who think that they may have misused the examination fees.

Obal, who is also accused of forging and presenting fake results to the candidates, is locked up at Kole Central Police Station as investigations continue. Parents have given the headteacher a 3 days ultimatum to deliver the results.

Mugira Kato, the Kole District Police Commander says they are holding Obal on charges of embezzlement and forgery. The school authorities have remained tightlipped on the matter.

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