The 2023 Primary Leaving Examinations have been released, indicating a drop in performance in all subjects compared to 2022.
Speaking at the release of the results at State House Nakasero on Thursday, 25 January 2024, UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo said a higher proportion of the 2023 candidates passed in Division 3 and above.
“In Science and Mathematics, the overall performance indicates that more of our candidates passed proportionally those two subjects,” he said.
“A higher proportion of the 2023 candidates passed in Division 3 and above level. Overall, the performance of candidates is comparable to that of 2022. Division U (Ungraded) is awarded to candidates who have failed to reach the minimum level of performance that can be awarded at least a Division 4 They are not eligible for admission to the Senior 1 class,” he added.
“It should be noted that the number of candidates in Division U is quite high, at 88,269 (10.4%) and should raise concern so that they do not just add to the statistics of school drop-outs. There are districts such as Kibuku (31.5o), Madi Okollo (31.5%), Dokolo (28.9%), Kween (28.4%), Namisindwa (28.9%) where the percentages are well above the national average. Many other districts have over 20% of the candidates in Division U. It is necessary to find out the causes and address them,” he added.
A total of 749,254 candidates from 15,859 centres (schools) registered for PLE in 2023 compared to 832,654 in 2022. Of this number, 501,602 (66.9%) from 11,365 centres were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries, and 247,652 (33.1) of the candidates were Non-UPE.
Proportionally males performed better than females. According to the results, 47,452 boys were in Division One, representing 13% compared to 39,130 girls in Division One, representing 9.99%. A total of 164, 906 boys (46%) boys were in Division Two compared to 171, 601 (43%) girls. 69,870 boys (19.53%) were in grade 3 while 86,420 (22.07%) girls were in the same grade.
Girls performed better than boys in English, where 90.64% passed English compared to the boys who are 88.32% but the reverse is true for the other three subjects; SST, Science, and Mathematics.
Uganda Prison registered 69 candidates and 60 candidates sat of whom 2 passed in Division 1 , 32 obtained Division 2, 15 obtained Division 3, 5 obtained Division 4 and 6 were ungraded; while the 9 did not sit the exam. More details will follow.
Results will be uploaded on the examination centre 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, 29th January. 2024. No copies of the results are available as of now. Parents, candidates and other interested parties may use the Short Messaging Service (SMS) on mobile networks, which will post the results of candidates on their mobile sets instantly.