By Minah Nalule
Uganda National Exams Board (UNEB) has on Friday January the 17th announced the results for the Primary Leaving Exams (PLE) .
The results were read out at Kampala Parents School in Naguru.
UNEB Executive Secretary Dan. N. Odongo says a total of 695,804 candidates from 13,475 centers registered for PLE in 2019.
Of this 473,893 (68.2%) were UPE beneficiaries, and 221,912 (31.8%) were Non-UPE,Candidature increased by 23,881 (3.6%)
Odongo says the performance has slightly improved. According to the results, 69,243 (10.1% of the candidates) passed in division one, 318,155 in the second division and 140,420 in the third division. 89,332 have passed in the fourth division while 66,152 are ungraded
Science was worst performed subject with a drop in Distinctions from 13.9% the previous year to just 4.9%. The English language was the best-performed subject as the Distinction rate rose from 6% to 7.6%.
Odongo noted that science was the worst performed subject because Distinctions 1 and 2 dropped sharply from 13.9% in 2018 to just 4.9%.
English and SST, performance has improved at the distinct level and overall pass level rose in Science
English and mathematics performance was poor in Questions where candidates were required to apply knowledge in problem-solving situations or express themselves freely. Candidates were more comfortable with questions that are direct and based on recall
UNEB Act has also withheld results of about 1,512 candidates pending completion of investigations. This is much lower than the 3,346 withheld in 2018 PLE.
Odongo revealed that the examination was conducted smoothly though there were several instances of fake papers circulated prior to the examination. 61 persons have so far been arrested from various parts of the country and charged.
The Board registered 1,315 learners with special needs of various categories. The blind, the deaf, the physically handicapped and the dyslexics among others. Of these, 49.3% are females and 50.7% are males
