The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) today announced the results of the 2024 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), marking what has been described by officials as a significant uptick in performance compared to the previous year.
The announcement was made under the watchful eyes of First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, at State House Nakasero, today 23rd January 2025.
According to UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo, “A higher proportion of the 2024 candidates passed in Division 2 and above level. Overall, the performance of candidates is better than that of 2023. A higher proportion of the candidates passed (91.8%) compared to 2023 (88.0%).” This year’s results reflect a commendable improvement, with fewer candidates left ungraded.
A total of 797,444 candidates from 14,883 centres (schools) registered for PLE in 2024 compared to 749,347 in 2023,” Odongo noted.
This year saw an increase of 6.4% in the number of candidates. Of this number, 524,025 (65.7%) from 11,451 centres were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries, showing continued growth in educational access especially for those under government programs.
Gender disparities in education continue to evolve, with Odongo stating, “In 2024, analysis by gender shows that 378,709 (47.5%) boys were registered compared to 418,750 (52.5%) girls, indicating that more girls than boys completed the Primary Education cycle.”
This has been the trend in recent years which highlights ongoing efforts towards gender parity in education, although challenges remain in ensuring equitable performance outcomes.
The performance breakdown by gender indicate that boys outperformed girls overall, with a higher proportion in Division One and Two, while females excelled in English, outscoring males.
UNEB also addressed the issue of examination malpractice, which marred last year’s results. “In 2023, 44 percent of candidates in this category were ungraded. This time, the proportion is 23% a big improvement,” Odongo said, signaling a positive shift in exam integrity and administration.
The release of these results comes at a time when the education sector is grappling with various challenges, including resource allocation, teacher training, and infrastructure development. However, there is a lot of improvement registered over the years.Parents and guardians can now seamlessly access these results through various platforms, including SMS and online portals provided by UNEB.
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