It is a common occurrence to hear that school administrators didn’t register learners to sit the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) despite parents meeting and providing all the financial obligations and requirements.

This unfortunate illegal act by schools has killed or stalled the future of many learners who are either forced to drop out of school or repeat a class. This illegality by uncouth school administrators heap a financial burden on parents who have to foot the bills necessary for a learner in a candidate class.

To avert this, the Uganda National Examinations Board has announced a mandatory period for the display of 2025 candidates’ registers, urging parents, candidates, and school authorities to thoroughly verify registration details. This critical exercise is set to run from August 10th to October 10th, 2025.

According to a press statement issued by UNEB, the registers must be displayed at all examination centres (schools) where candidates are registered, as well as at district headquarters. The primary objective of this initiative is to ensure the accuracy of candidates’ biodata and the registration status of the learners.

The examination body said this prevents the unfortunate scenarios where students discover they are unregistered at the start of examination periods. UNEB emphasized that it is the collective responsibility of Heads of Centres, candidates, and parents to meticulously review the registers for accuracy.

The review, UNEB said, should capture the Index/Personal Number of the learner, Spelling and Order of Names of the candidate including the sequence of the candidate’s full name, the Date of Birth of the learner in the order of Day, Month, Year, the learners Gender, the Photograph, the Subjects and Papers being studied by the learner.  

The Uganda National Examinations Board has advised parents whose children have been studying in schools without UNEB centre status to establish where their learners were registered and confirm their official registration.

“Should a student, with proof of registration fee payment, be found unregistered, parents must immediately contact the school. If no resolution is found at the school level, they are urged to report directly to UNEB for remedial action,” UNEB said in a statement.

SMS Verification Option

Unlike in the past, when parents couldn’t verify if their children had been registered and relied on information provided by the school, now, they can do it through their phone – like they do when checking the results of their children when UNEB releases them.

“For added convenience, UNEB has introduced an SMS option to ascertain registration status. Users can type Reg. [space] Full Index No. and send it to 6600 using their mobile telephone handsets. This requires knowing the candidate’s full index number,” UNEB explained.

Dan Odongo, the Executive Director of UNEB, commended candidates, parents, Heads of Centres, teachers, and District/City/Municipal Inspectors of Schools for their successful participation in the registration process. He reiterated the importance of using the display period to ensure data accuracy, stating, “Let us now use the registers to ensure that the data submitted is accurate.”