By James Alomu

As the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) national examinations kicked off today across the country, Soroti Secondary School, one of the largest government schools in the Teso Sub region, began its exams smoothly without major challenges reported.

The school has a total of 621 candidates registered for this year’s UACE, operates under two centers ,Center One with 499 candidates and Center Two with 142 candidates. The examinations commenced with Physics Paper One (Theory) in the morning session, In the afternoon session will be Physics Paper Two, Literature in English Paper One, and Kiswahili Paper One .

According to the school’s Director of Studies, Mr. Charles Peter Opolot, all examination activities began as planned and have proceeded without incident. However, he noted that one student failed to appear for the morning paper. “We tried to reach out to the student’s family, but they informed us that the boy disappeared from home some time back,” Mr. Opolot revealed. The missing candidate has been identified  as Ogwang Remedius , who was scheduled to sit for the Physics paper in the morning session.

When contacted for a comment Mr.Party Emokor, the Principal Education Officer for Soroti City, confirmed that the examinations had begun successfully across the city. “It is still early to assess all the challenges that might arise, but so far, no major problems have been reported to my office. Cases of students missing or disappearing during examination periods occasionally occur, but we shall continue to monitor the situation as the day progresses,” Mr. Emokor said.

The UACE examinations, administered by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), are a crucial academic milestone for students completing their Advanced Level studies, determining their eligibility for university and tertiary education.

Despite the isolated case of the missing candidate, the general atmosphere at Soroti Secondary School remained calm and organized, with both staff and students showing commitment to ensuring a smooth examination process.