The 2025 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) results reveal a clear gender pattern in learner performance, with boys edging out girls in overall achievement, despite girls making up the larger share of candidates who completed the primary education cycle.
According to the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), a total of 807,313 candidates sat the 2025 PLE, of whom 52.4 percent were girls and 47.6 percent were boys. While this confirms the continued dominance of girls in enrolment and completion of primary education, the final results show that boys performed better in terms of quality of outcomes, particularly in the top divisions.
In Division One, which represents the highest level of performance, 48,220 boys (12.54 percent) attained the grade compared to 43,770 girls (10.35 percent). Boys also posted a slight advantage in Division Two, further strengthening their overall lead. When Divisions One and Two are combined, a higher proportion of boys appeared in the top performance brackets than girls.
The gender gap becomes more pronounced at the lower end of the results. Girls recorded a higher failure rate, with 10.07 percent ungraded, compared to 8.97 percent among boys. This difference, though not drastic, was significant enough to tilt the national performance balance in favour of boys.
Subject-level analysis helps explain this trend. While girls outperformed boys in English, continuing a long-established pattern, boys performed better in Mathematics, Integrated Science, and Social Studies with Religious Education. These subjects carry strong weight in determining overall aggregates, giving boys an advantage when total scores were computed.
UNEB’s proficiency analysis further shows that the majority of candidates—across both genders—fell into the medium ability category, meaning they could recall and understand concepts but struggled to apply them in unfamiliar situations. However, boys were slightly more represented in the higher ability band in the numeracy and science-related subjects, reinforcing their stronger overall showing.
Education analysts note that the results point to persistent gender differences in learning outcomes, rather than access. While girls continue to enroll, attend, and complete primary education in higher numbers, boys appear to perform better in assessments that demand application, problem-solving, and analytical skills.
As Uganda deepens the implementation of competency-based learning, the 2025 PLE results highlight the need for targeted instructional support, particularly for girls in mathematics and science-related subjects. Addressing these gaps early could help translate girls’ strong participation in education into equally strong performance outcomes.
