Kampala, Uganda: The 2025 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) results released by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) revealed incremental gains in top performance, stable absenteeism, persistent gender gaps, and emerging concerns around subject competency and examination integrity.
According to UNEB Executive Director, Dr Dan Odongo, 817,883 candidates registered for the 2025 PLE, representing a 2.6 per cent increase from 797,444 candidates in 2024. Of these, 807,313 candidates sat the examination conducted on November 3 and 4, 2025, while 10,570 candidates (1.3%) were absent—unchanged from the previous year.
Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries accounted for 522,036 candidates (63.8%), while 295,847 candidates (36.2%) came from non-UPE schools, underlining the continued dominance of public primary education in national candidature.
Overall Pass Rates and Divisional Performance
UNEB data shows that 730,233 candidates passed the 2025 PLE, an increase of 7,503 passes compared to 2024. At the top end, 91,990 candidates passed in Division One, up from 84,301 in 2024—an increase of 7,689 candidates, marking one of the strongest year-on-year improvements in recent cycles.
Division breakdown for 2025 shows:
Division One: 91,990 candidates (11.39%),
Division Two: 388,293 candidates (48.10%),
Division Three: 165,226 candidates (20.47%),
Division Four: 84,724 candidates (10.49%),
Ungraded: 77,080 candidates (9.55%)
While the pass rate improved, the ungraded percentage rose slightly from 8.2% in 2024 to 9.55% in 2025, signalling persistent learning gaps at the lower end.
Subject Performance: Gains and Declines
Subject-level analysis shows mixed outcomes. English recorded the strongest improvement, with 91.9% of candidates attaining Grade 8 or better, up from 88.3% in 2024.
Integrated Science followed at 90.5%, down slightly from 93.4% last year, while Mathematics stood at 88.9%, largely stable.
Social Studies with Religious Education (SST) declined to 86.7%, from 91.9% in 2024, making it the worst-performed subject overall.
However, UNEB noted that SST and Mathematics were particularly affected by learners’ difficulty in applying knowledge to real-life situations.
Ability Levels: Competency Gaps Persist
An item response analysis conducted for the second consecutive year showed that less than 20 per cent of candidates demonstrated higher ability levels in any subject.
English led with 18.5% at higher proficiency, followed by Mathematics (16.4%), Social Studies (15.9%), and Integrated Science (15.6%). About two-thirds of candidates fell within the medium ability band, while approximately 16% were classified at lower ability levels across subjects.
Gender Performance Patterns
Although girls continued to dominate registration numbers, 428,324 girls (52.4%) compared to 389,469 boys (47.6%), boys outperformed girls overall.
In Division One: 12.54% of boys vs 10.35% of girls, while the failure rate: 8.97% returned as the rate for boys vs 10.07% for girls
However, girls performed better in English, consistent with historical trends, while boys led in Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.
Special Candidate Groups
Special Needs Education (SNE) candidates rose to 3,636, a 9.3% increase from 2024. Nearly 48.4% of these candidates attained Division Two, reflecting steady performance within supported learning environments.
Among prison inmate candidates, performance remained notable: Luzira Upper Prison: 4 Division One out of 58 who sat, while at Mbarara Main Prison: 7 Division One passes out of 39 candidates
UNEB confirmed that results from candidates in districts including Kisoro, Kampala, Mukono, Namutumba, Kassanda, Buyende and Kaliro were withheld due to suspected malpractice.
Accessing Results
The 2025 PLE Results are accessible via: school portals on the UNEB e-reg system, or by using SMS: Type PLE [Index Number] and send to 6600 on MTN or Airtel
UNEB said Hard copies will be available from the examination body’s offices in Kampala starting February 2, 2026, with a two-week window for corrections on candidate details.
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