UNEB releases 2018 PLE results as boys beat girls

By Our Reporter

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has releases the results of the 2018 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE), showing that male pupils performed slightly better than their female counterparts.

According to Dan Odongo, the UNEB Executive Secretary, 13.1% of the male passed in division one compared to 10.5 percent of the females. However, 48.3% who sat for the PLE were boys while 51.7% were girls, showing that more girls completed the primary education cycle than boys.

Education minister Janet Museveni said it’s important to find out factors why now, there are more girls registering for examinations than boys coz they don’t want to have a reversal of a previous problem where more boys than girls were in school.

UNEB Chairperson, Prof. Mary Okwakol. said the agency registered an increase in the candidature in 2018 by 3.9% compared to the 0.8% of 2017, which she said could be an indication that the districts heeded to the minister Janet Museveni’s  call to ensure that pupils are registered for the exams.

Performance by subjects improved as more candidates passed by distinctions. “We’ve also seen improvement at Social Studies (SST), Mathematics showed increased performance at distinction level. However, we note that the pass levels at Mathematics have declined and the overall performance expect at the distinction level decreased,” Odongo said.

He said English and mathematics performance is usually poor especially where pupils are expected to express themselves.

Two of the 65 candidates that sat for PLE in 2018 at Luzira Upper Prison obtained Divisional grade 1, 26 obtained Division 2, 15- Division 3, 15- Division 4. Only seven were ungraded.

Prof Okwakol said some schools that are not registered by the Education Ministry continue to operate and dupe parents.

In five Bundibugyo schools security found teachers writing answers on the chalkboard for candidates to copy and that parents had paid Shs50, 000 to facilitate the malpractice. Some of the schools were; Bundimulinga Primary School, Bubandi Primary School, Izahura Sitting Centre, Bundikahungu Primary Schools and Clevers Origin Primary School. The cases await court action. Odongo has urged government to develop tougher punishments in the law so as to tame the malpractice.

A total of 671,923 candidates registered to sit PLE at 13,072 centres across the country compared to 646,041 from 12, 751 centres in 2017.This is an increase of 25,882 (3.9) candidates. At least 71% (476,131) of the candidates who sat for the examinations, are from government-aided schools, while 29% (195,792) are from private ones.

In 2018 599,593 (91.4%) of the candidates that sat for PLE passed. Thus, they obtained divisional divisions 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Prof Okwakol said the results indicate that performance has improved and more candidates would be able to join post-primary institutions. Examiners have reported improved handwriting, however, there are still some candidates who have failed to score even one mark.

Results will be accessed on portals of the schools, hard copies can be collected from UNEB offices in Ntinda starting 3PM and can also be accessed using SMS. All candidates whose results have been withheld will be accorded a fair hearing by the Board’s Examination security Committee. Those cleared will have their results released and headteachers can pick up the results at 3pm from UNEB offices in Ntinda.

However, Results of over 3500 candidates have been withheld. This is much higher than those of 2,559 candidates withheld for the year 2017.

Meanwhile State Minister for Primary Education Rosemary Nansubuga Seninde has urged parents to consider taking their children to technical schools and institutions. “They are not only for failures,” she said.

Minister Janet Museveni said no private school would be allowed to operate in the 2019 school year, without a valid registration license and urged leaders to be watchful of teachers who run schools in residential houses. “Do not allow teachers to operate schools in residential houses,” she said.