When Schools Hold the Cards: How Information Asymmetry Is Hurting Our Children

By Richard Sebaggala (PhD)

Today, I have decided not to write about artificial intelligence, as I usually do in my weekly reflections on the economics of technology. This change of topic was prompted by watching the evening news on NTV. The story featured students in Mukono who fainted and cried after discovering they could not sit their UCE examinations because their school had not registered them, even though their parents had already paid the required fees. It was painful to watch young people who had worked hard for four years, now stranded on the day that was supposed to mark a major step in their education.

Unfortunately, this is not a new problem. Every examination season, similar stories emerge from different parts of the country. Some schools collect registration fees but fail to remit them to the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB). When the examinations begin, students find their names missing from the register. In many cases, the head teachers or directors responsible are later arrested, but that does little to help the students. By then, the exams are already underway, and the victims have lost an entire academic year. Parents lose their savings, and the education system loses public trust.

 

What is most troubling is how easily this could be prevented. Uganda has made progress in using technology to deliver public services. UNEB already allows students to check their examination results through a simple SMS system. If the same technology can instantly display a student’s grades after the exams, why can it not confirm a student’s registration before the exams? Imagine if every candidate could send an SMS reading “UCE STATUS INDEX NUMBER” to a UNEB shortcode and receive a message showing whether they are registered, their centre name, and the date their payment was received. If registration was missing, the student would be alerted early enough to follow up.

Such a system would protect thousands of students from unnecessary loss and reduce the incentives for dishonest school administrators to exploit their informational advantage. In economic terms, this situation reflects a classic case of information asymmetry, where one party (the school) possesses critical information that the other parties (the parents and students) do not. This imbalance distorts decision-making and accountability, creating room for opportunistic behaviour and moral hazard. The most effective remedy is to restore information symmetry through transparency and timely access to verifiable data, enabling parents and students to make informed choices and hold institutions accountable.

The Ministry of Education and UNEB already have the basic tools to make this work. The registration database is digital, and the SMS platform for results is already in use. A simple update could link the two. The cost would be small compared to the harm caused each year by fraudulent registration practices. This would shift the system from reacting after harm has occurred to preventing harm before it happens.

Other institutions in Uganda have shown that such solutions work. The National Identification and Registration Authority allows citizens to check the status of their national ID applications by SMS. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health used mobile phones to share health updates and collect data. Even savings groups and telecom companies send instant confirmations for every transaction. If a mobile money user can confirm a payment in seconds, surely a student should be able to confirm their examination registration.

 

This issue goes beyond technology. It is about governance and trust. When public institutions act only after problems have occurred, citizens lose confidence in them. But when they act early and give people access to information, trust begins to grow. An SMS registration system would be a simple but powerful way to show that the Ministry of Education and UNEB care about transparency and fairness as much as they care about performance. It would protect families from unnecessary loss and strengthen public confidence in the examination process.

As I watched those students in Mukono crying at their school gate, I kept thinking how easily their situation could have been avoided. A single text message could have told them months in advance that their registration had not been completed. They could have taken action, sought help, or transferred to another school. Instead, they found out when it was already too late.

Uganda does not need a new commission or an expensive reform to solve this. It only needs a small, practical innovation that gives students and parents control over information that directly affects their lives. Such steps would make the education system more transparent, efficient, and fair.

Although this article is not about artificial intelligence, it conveys a familiar lesson. Technology has little value without imagination and accountability. If we can use digital tools to issue results and manage national exams, we can also use them to ensure that every student who deserves to sit those exams has the opportunity to do so. True accountability begins before the exams, not after.