Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) has Friday released results of Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) for 2019 at Kampala Parents School main hall.
Presenting the results to Education Minister the First Lady Janet Museveni and her team, UNEB Executive Secretary Dan Odong said the examination exercise conducted last November on 4th and 5th under a theme “Integrity and Security in the Management of Examination is my Responsibility” was smooth.
Statement
A total of 695,804 candidates from 13,475 centres (schools) registered for PLE in 2019. Of this number, 473,893 (68.2%) were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries, and 221,912 (31.8%) of the candidates were Non-UPE.
The candidature increased by 23,881 (3.6%) over the number of candidates and centres in the previous year. Candidature has been increasing by an average of 2.4% over the last five years.
In 2019, analysis by gender indicated that 336,040 (48.3%) boys were registered compared to 359,764 (51.7%) girls, indicating that more girls than boys completed the Primary Education cycle. This has been the trend in the last five years.
The Board registered 1,315 learners with special needs of various categories. The blind, the deaf, the physically handicapped and the dyslexics among others. Of these, 49.3% are females and 50.7% are males.
Performance
The performance of candidates in the four subjects is compared over the two-year period of 2019 and 2018.
Overall pass level rose in Science although performance at the
dropped sharply.
In both English and Mathematics performance was poor in questions where
candidates were required to apply knowledge in problem solving situations or express themselves freely.
Candidates were more comfortable with questions that are direct and based on recall. This situation has persisted over the years.
The reports from Examiners, however, indicated that there is an improvement in candidates’ handwriting. Candidates also organized and presented their work more clearly even when the answers are wrong. The number of candidates scoring zero has also reduced greatly compared to previous years.
The table shows that generally there was better performance in 2019 than 2018 in the upper divisions 2 and 3. 4
A candidate is deemed to have passed if he/she obtains divisional grades of 1, 2, 3 or 4. Such candidates will qualify to register for any post primary examination conducted by UNEB. This year 617,150 candidates passed the PLE compared to 599,593 the previous year.
Overall, therefore, more pupils qualify to join the post primary institutions than the previous year. 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. Such candidates are advised to repeat.
UNEB maintains an examination centre at Uganda Government Upper Prison School. Of the 62 candidates who registered, 56 candidates sat, there was none in Division 1, 31 obtained Division 2, 19 obtained Division 3, 4 obtained Division 4, and only 2 were ungraded.
The best blind candidate, AINAMANI ARTHUR RWAKITARA from Grand Masion Primary School Nabbingo (Wakiso) obtained Division 1 with an aggregate of 9.
The best dyslexic candidates are a female, AHURIRA RHINA from Bwaise Parents Primary School (Kampala) with Division 1, Aggregate 9 and a male GAEL PARWOT GADI from Victorious Primary School (Kampala) also aggregate 9, Division 1.
The best deaf candidate is a female PEACE SHARON from Ojipaku Primary School Arua with Aggregate 13, Division 2. 5.0 PERFORMANCE BY GENDER Performance by gender is shown in table 5 below:
Malpractice
Although the examination was conducted smoothly, cases of malpractice were reported. These were mainly cases of external assistance given to candidates by third parties inside the examination rooms. There were several instances of fake papers circulated prior to the examination.
Sixty-one persons have so far been arrested from various parts of the country and charged. Many gullible schools bought these papers and used them to teach the children overnight on the eve of the examination.
Such children were greatly disorganized on finding different questions in the examination papers.
Markers found in some candidates’ scripts excuses such as “this is not the
paper we are to do,” “this is not our examination,” etc.
Those arrested and charged cases are awaiting court action. UNEB wishes to warn
that from now on, the perpetrators of examination malpractice will be hunted down and brought to book.
The Board has sought and obtained approval of the Hon. Minister in accordance with Section 4(3) of the UNEB Act to withhold results of about 1,512 candidates pending completion of investigations.
This is much lower than the 3,346 withheld in 2018 PLE.
Schools whose results are withheld will be notified through their District Inspectors of Schools.
All candidates whose results have been withheld will be accorded a fair hearing by the Board’s Examinations Security Committee. Those candidates who will be cleared will have their results released. After the hearings are concluded the Board will publish in the media the list of schools and districts from which results will have been cancelled.
