Pupils excel in Social Studies, Sciences
KAMPALA.
Social Studies and Integrated Sciences were the best done subjects in the 2017 PLE.
Pupils performed better in Social Studies with a 95 per cent pass rate, followed by Integrated Sciences at 88.3 per cent. The English and Math pass rates were at 85.6 and 83.8 respectively.
However, fewer pupils passed with distinctions in Math but improved at credit and Pass level at 88.3 per cent rate.
English was one of the worst done subjects with only 54.4 per cent scoring Credit 6 and below, according to Mr Daniel Odongo, the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) executive secretary.
Advise
With limited abilities in the said subjects according to Ms Mary Nakabugo, the Uganda country manager for UWEZO programme under Twaweza East Africa, pupils scoring poor grades should not come as a surprise.
“A candidate has to excel in core subjects of Math and English to be able to be in Division One but performance was not good in those subjects,” Dr Nakabugo said by telephone.
“We should not, however, be discussing grades but what value the school has added to a learner in terms of knowledge and skills after the seven years in school,” she added.
The results show that the number of pupils who passed in a coveted Division One in last year’s exams has dropped by 6,202 candidates.
Fewer Division Ones
In 2016, candidates who passed in Division One were 63,400 but that number dropped to 57,198, in last year’s exams, representing a 1.1 per cent decline.
Although Mr Odongo said there has been an improvement in general performance compared to 2016, those who scored Division One were fewer.
“Overall, therefore, in terms of numbers, more pupils qualify to join the post primary institutions than the previous year,” Mr Odongo said while releasing the results yesterday.
There were 541,089 (87.02 per cent) candidates who passed PLE in 2016 exams compared to 571, 252 (90.9 per cent) in 2017. A candidate is deemed by Uneb to have passed if he or she obtains divisional grades of 1 to 4.
But most schools admit candidates who scored the first two divisional grades.
Education minister Janet Museveni appealed to teachers to teach learners critical thinking and problem solutions skills.
