The 2023 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results have been released this afternoon by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) at a function at State House Nakasero.
A total of 749,254 candidates from 15,859 centers registered for PLE in 2023 compared to 832,654 in 2022. Of this number, 501,602 (66.9%) from 11,365 centers were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries, and 247,652 (33.1%) of the candidates were non-UPE.
Dan Odongo, the Executive Secretary of UNEB, said that as the trend has been, girls performed better than boys in English but the latter surpassed the former in other subjects (SST, Science, and Mathematics).
“A higher proportion of the 2023 candidates passed in Division 3 and above levels,” Dan Odongo said.
When it comes to the performance of prison inmates, a total of 69 candidates were registered (compared to the 68 registered in 2022). Of the 69 candidates who registered, 60 candidates sat, two passed in Division 1, 32 obtained Division 2, 15 obtained Division 3, five obtained Division 4, and six were ungraded.
While officially releasing the results, Minister of Education and Sports, First Lady Janet Museveni, was concerned about the trend of many boys dropping out of school.
“…I observe the concern in the trend regarding the boy child; statistics from UNEB show that more girls are sitting for the exams and completing, while the boys are dropping out. This should cause worry; we need to prescribe solutions to prevent this negative trend from getting out of control,” she said.
Meanwhile, results will be uploaded on the examination center portals.
“Each school can, therefore, download their results as soon as they are officially released. However, the District, Municipal, and City Inspectors of Schools may collect hard copies of the results from UNEB offices at Ntinda from Monday, January 29, 2024,” said Odongo.
He further revealed that no copies of the results are available as of now.
Parents and candidates will again this year get their results through SMS on their phones. Each SMS request via short code 6600 will be Sh500.
Selection for entry into Senior One is scheduled for February 1st and 2nd, 2024. Senior One students are expected to commence their first term on February 19th, 2024, according to the Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni.