By : Our Reporter

 The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has placed school administrators and supervisors on high alert, demanding strict adherence to examination guidelines as the 2026 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) written papers officially commenced across the country today.

The security dispatch began early this morning at Nebbi Police Station, where heavily guarded delivery trucks distributed highly sensitive examination materials to dozens of waiting headteachers. Candidates nationwide faced their first major academic hurdles, sitting for Mathematics Paper 1 in the morning and Chemistry in the afternoon.

Overseeing the distribution, Bisaswatamu Mohammed, the UNEB Chief Scout for Nebbi, issued a stern warning against examination malpractice. He stressed that field staff must enforce maximum integrity inside examination halls, noting that any negligence or attempt to compromise the exercise would face severe legal penalties under the UNEB Act.

This year (2026) marks the third cohort of candidates sitting the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) national assessments under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC)

Under the system, the national written paper contributes 80 percent of a candidate’s final grade, while the remaining 20 percent is derived from continuous assessment scores submitted by schools throughout the learning cycle.

Local head teachers who witnessed the morning distribution expressed strong confidence in their students. They noted that candidates were exhaustively briefed on October 8 and are academically and psychologically prepared

The Exam Timeline

The national examinations are running under the theme “Advancing Excellence in Assessment and Certification through Secure, Credible, Inclusive and Innovative Processes.” Following today’s kickoff, the written evaluation cycle will continue intensively for the next three weeks. The UCE exam schedule is set to conclude in early November, with final foreign language (such as French, German, Arabic, Latin, and Chinese) and practical papers wrapping up on November 3.