Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has released the 2020 Primary Leaving Examination during an event that was held at the State House Entebbe, presided over by First Lady and Education and Sports Minister Janet Museveni.
The 2020 PLE results, overall, showed that more pupils qualified to join post primary institutions than the previous year. Results also indicated that there was an overall improvement in English language performance at the minimum pass level.
The UNEB Executive secretary, Daniel Odongo said that boys recorded a lower failure rate. A total of 44,877 boys passed in Division 1 compared to 36,987 girls.
“163,973 boys passed in Division 2 compared to 170,738 girls. 63,781 boys passed in Division 3 compared to 82,361 girls. 30,394 boys failed exams compared to 43,924 girls.”
A total of 749,761 candidates from 14,300 centres registered for PLE in 2020 compared to 695,804 in 2019. Of this number, 513,085 (68.4%) from 11,231 centres were UPE beneficiaries, and 236,677 (31.6%) of the candidates were Non UPE.
“In 2020, more candidates obtained Division 1 than in 2019. Therefore, more pupils qualify to join the post primary institutions than the previous year. I advise that children should be learning at home. I encourage parents to now consider home schooling as we work together with schools,” said Jane Museveni.
She urged parents to make homes safe for children. She congratulates those that persevered and completed PLE 2020.
In the results, 11% pass in Division One.
The Minister also expressed a concern over absenteeism in PLE, asking parents to work with the Government to mitigate the challenge.
“We need help from parents to track the children who register for exams but never get to do them. We need to find out what happened to these children,” said Mrs Museveni.
She added: “I urge parents, guardians, and district authorities to ensure the reading materials reach the children as they wait for COVID 19 to pass.”