Government has launched the mass registration of school-going children between the ages of five to 16 with the aim of issuing them with national Identity cards.

The exercise will be carried out by the ministries of Education and Internal Affairs and National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA)

The launch of the exercise happened at Oxford Inn in Mbarara.

According to Benon Mutambi, the Permanent Secretary Ministry in the Internal Affairs ministry, the exercise will be conducted between May 29th to August 30th 2017.

Learners in the the regions of Tooro, Nkore and Kigezi will be registered first.

Mutambi was hopeful that the registration would weed out ghost pupils.

Kedrace Turyagyenda, the commissioner at the Directorate of Education Standards, said that pupils and students who will miss out on the registration process will not be allowed to sit for final exams at different levels of education.