Kampala, Uganda | By Michael Wandati | On Thursday 25, January 2024, the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) revealed that there has been a marginal decline in the count of candidates achieving Divisions One and Two in the 2023 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) when compared to the previous year.
Despite this, Daniel Odongo, the UNEB Executive Director, pointed out an encouraging trend, citing a rise in the number of candidates attaining Division 3 and above compared to the 2022 results. Mr. Odongo emphasized that the overall pass rate remains steady, maintaining at 88.0% as reported last year.
“A higher proportion of the 2023 candidates passed in Division 3 and above level. Overall, the performance of candidates is comparable to that of 2022,” Mr Odongo said.
Encouragingly, the examination body also registered a decline in the number of ungraded candidates in the 2023 PLE results.
“Division U (Ungraded) is awarded to candidates who have failed to reach the minimum level of performance that can be awarded at least a Division 4 they are not eligible for admission to the Senior 1 class. It should be noted that the number of candidates in Division U is quite high, at 88,269 (10.4%) and should raise concern so that they do not just add to the statistics of school drop-outs,” Mr Odongo said before the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni officially released the 2023 PLE results.
According to the 2023 PLE results, the number of candidates in Division U is quite high, at 88,269 (10.4%) and should raise concern so that they do not just add to the statistics of school drop-outs.
There are districts such as Kibuku (31.5%), Madi Okollo (31.5%), Dokolo (28.9%), Kween (28.4%) and Namisindwa (28.9%) where the percentages are well above the national average. Many other districts have over 20% of the candidates in Division U. It is necessary to find out the causes and address them.
UNEB maintains an examination centre at Uganda Government Upper Prison School, Luzira. 69 candidates were registered (as compared to the 68 registered in 2022).
Of the 69 candidates who registered, 60 candidates sat. Two candidates passed in Division One, 32 obtained Division Two, 15 obtained Division 3.5 obtained Division Four, and six were ungraded. Nine did not sit for the examination.
Per Section 5(2) (b) of the UNEB Act, 2021 the Board will withhold the results of the affected candidates pending completion of investigations. Where there will be a prima facie case, the Board’s tribunal (Examinations Security Committee) will accord all the affected candidates a fair hearing before making final decisions.
After the conclusion of the hearings by the Board’s tribunal, the list of districts and schools with cancelled results will be published, said the executive director while releasing 2023 PLE results.
Results will be uploaded on the examination Centre Portals. Each school can therefore download their results as soon as they are officially released. However, the District, Municipal and City Inspectors of Schools may collect hard copies of the results from UNEB offices at Ntinda from Monday, January 29.
No copies of the results are available as of now. Parents, candidates and other interested parties may use the Short Messaging Service (SMS) on mobile networks, which will post the results of candidates on their mobile sets instantly.
How to check your 2023 PLE Results
There are two options for checking your results. The first option is to send an SMS to the shortcode 6600, which has a cost associated with it. The second option is to check your results through the UNEB online portal.
To check for your kid’s results via SMS:
- Step 1: Open your message pad on your phone and type PLE <space> INDEX NUMBER of your kid and send to 6600.
- Step 2: The cost for each SMS is 500 UGX, and the service is available on both the MTN and Airtel networks.
To check for your kid’s results via the UNEB’s e-registration online platform:
- Step 1: Visit the UNEB eReg Portal, and select Results https://ereg.uneb.ac.ug/results.
- Step 2: You will be redirected to a page that has a UNEB Results header. From here, enter your Index Number and tap Search.
