The Primary Leaving Examination year 2022 results released by UNEB have indicated that boys have once against outshined girls.
The results were officially released by first lady, Minister of Education and Sports Janet Kataha Museveni on Friday, January 27, 2023, at State House Nakasero indicated that girls beat boys only in English language as male pupils performed better in the remaining subjects of Social Studies, Mathematics , Religious Education and Integrated Science.
A total of 432,554 girls accounting for 51.9% registered for the 2022 PLE exams compared to the 400,100 (48.1%) who were boys.
The results indicate that 60,070 boys representing 15.4% passed in division one, compared to 54,547(12.9%) of girls whereas in division two, 172,827 boys representing 44.3% passed in comparison to 184,972(43.9%) girls who passed in the same grade.
In grade three, 68,272 boys(17.5%) passed compared to 78,311(18.6%) girls and on the other side, 45,309(11.1%) boys failed compared to 51,800(12.3%) for girls.
According to UNEB overall candidates’ performance generally improved as can be seen at the percentages scoring distinction and credit grades.
A total of 114,617 candidates representing 14.1% passed in division one, 472,416(582%) were in division two whereas 97,109 candidates representing 12% of the total candidates who sat for the exams failed.
The results released on Friday indicated that just as been the case for many year, candidates under the government Universal Primary Education(UPE) program performed poorly again.
Whereas 566,515 registered for PLE exams under UPE, 87,825 of them completely failed the exams compared to the 9,284 from non-UPE schools who failed out of the 245,295 who sat in this category.
In the breakdown, 37,578 representing 6.6% of the candidates in UPE schools passed in Division ne, against 77,039(31.4%) of the total number of candidates in non-UPE schools.
“It can be seen that non UPE candidates have, proportionally, performed better than the UPE candidates. Reasons for this disparity in performance, as indicated in earlier studies by UNEB, could include the fact that teachers in the urban schools tend to spend more time on task, and the learners spend more time in school. The teachers also tend to adopt teaching methods that emphasize preparation of candidates for test taking,” said UNEB Executive Director, Dan Odongo.
“There is a higher level of involvement by the urban parents in their children’s learning process, and urban areas generally have better access to facilities that supplement classroom teaching.”
Special needs children
The PLE results for 2022 released by UNEB indicate that 209 special needs candidates passed in division one whereas 994 passed in division two and 1556 representing the majority who registered failed the exams.
The special needs children including those who are physically handcapped, blind, partially blind, deaf, those with dyslexis , those who need transcribers and others who need extra time in exams.
The UNEB Executive Director noted that they registered 88 inmates for PLE exams with 63 of these sitting for final exams and five passed in division one, 34 in division two, nine in division three and only one failed.
Speaking at the release of the exams, the Education Minister, Janet Museveni who also doubles as the First Lady said the results indicate that more learners are enrolling in UPE schools around the country.
“The statistics show rise in confidence that the people of Uganda have put in UPE. This is because pupils benefiting from UPE has increased by 1.7% . As UPE celebrates 25 years, it is heartwarming to know our people are benefiting from this government program,” Mrs Museveni said.
