14 secondary students from undisclosed schools have been discovered that after they failed their exams, they went to neighbouring Uganda and bought forged academic papers.

This was disclosed by  the Rwanda National Examination Council (RNEC) this week. One female student stunned RNEC when it was discovered she was carrying an A’ level certificate from a boys’ school.

RNEC’s director of selection, orientation, training and equivalence, Peter Gasinzigwa said academic forgery was rife.

He said most of academic forgery cases come from Uganda. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya have similar cases but are minimal.

"The fourteen forgery cases all emanate from Uganda,” Gasinzigwa said in exclusive interview on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Education has in the past warned employees in both public and private institutions that the government had stepped up efforts to stamp out forged academic transcripts.

The government says the clean-up exercise intends to put to rest claims that some employees could have secured employment under false pretences.

Several top organisations have approached RNEC to verify the authenticity of academic documents of their employees following reports that the university transcripts are easily forged.

RNEC named the RwandaRevenue Authority and the Ministry of Health as among organisations which had verified the academic papers of their staff in the past.

He said there was increased pressure on organisations to establish the validity of academic papers in the wake of reports of massive forgery.

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