Boys outperform girls in PLE again

Boys have outperformed their female counterparts in the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results that were released yesterday.

Statistics released by the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) indicate that the percentage of boys who passed in Division One and Two surpassed that of girls.

While more girls passed in Division Three and Four, Uneb’s dataset also shows that a great number of them failed to attain any grading and were consequently placed in Division U.

Uneb registered 749,254 candidates from 15,859 centres in 2023 compared to 832,654 in 2022. Of the numbers registered, 501,602 (66.9 percent) from 11,365 centres were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries.

“A higher proportion of the 2023 candidates passed in Division Three and above level. Overall, the performance of candidates is comparable to that of 2022,” Dan Odongo, the Uneb executive secretary said, while releasing the results yesterday.

Figures released by the examination body indicate that 357,755 boys were registered in 2023 compared to 391,499 girls. Mr Odongo also disclosed that more girls completed the primary education cycle compared to the opposite sex, adding that “this has been the trend for the last seven years and the gap has been slowly widening.”

Worrying failure rates

The data indicates that 47,452 (13.26 percent) boys passed in Division One, compared to 39.130 (9.99 percent) girls in the same division. Elsewhere, 164,906 (46.09 percent) boys passed in Division Two, with 171,601 (43.83 percent) girls obtaining the same division. The boys in Division Three totalled 69,870 boys, with the number of girls in the same division standing at 86,420. There were 31,415 boys and 37,868 girls in Division Four.

The number of boys who accounted for the ungraded pupils was 38,346. While this represented 10.72 percent of the tally, the girls totalled 4,926 girls or 12.75 percent.

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 Four. They are consequently not eligible for admission to the Senior One class.

The general performance was lower than last year where 114,617 students passed in Division One, 357,799 in Two, 146,583 in Division Three, and 95,705 in Division Four. Mr Odongo attributed this to the lower number of pupils who registered for PLE as compared to 832,654 who wrote their final papers in 2022.

“It should be noted that the number of candidates in Division U is quite high, at 88,269 (10.4 percent), and should raise concern so that they do not just add to the statistics of school drop-outs,” Mr Odongo opined, adding, “There are districts such as Kibuku (31.5 percent), Madi Okollo (31.5 percent), Dokolo (28.9 percent), Kween (28.4 percent), Namisindwa (28.9 percent) where the percentages are well above the national average. Many other districts have over 20 percent of the candidates in Division U. It is necessary to find out the causes and address them.”

Subject scorecard

In terms of subjects, Mr Odongo said that female candidates performed better than males in English. Male pupils dominated in Social Studies and Religious Education, Integrated Science, and Mathematics.

This, Mr Odongo added, has pretty much been the case for the past years.

“Overall at Grade 8 and above, performance is slightly better in English, Integrated Science, and Mathematics. Performance in Social Studies is comparable to 2022,” he said, also offering that examiners observed areas where candidates showed weakness and a report on the same will be produced.

The aforesaid report will, the Uneb top official said, be instructive for all stakeholders, including teachers.

Zooming into the subjects, 8.09 percent of girls obtained Aggregates 1 and two in English.

The boys who pulled off a similar feat were 7.49 percent. At credit level, 58.31 percent of boys obtained between credits three and six, while 62.59 girls passed with credit in English.

In SST, Science and Mathematics boys emerged better with 10.78 percent, 11.75 percent and 6.73 percent obtaining distinctions respectively.

Elsewhere, the girls stood at 8.06 percent, 7.96 percent and 4.04 percent respectively.

Special needs

Partially blind candidates performed well compared to the rest of the pupils who fall under the Special Needs (SNE) Learners. These (partially blind) had 70 candidates in Division One, 285 in Division Two, 134 in Division Three,  54 in Division Four and 81 failures.

Forty-nine candidates with dyslexia and those needing transcribers passed in Division One, 413 in Division Two, 105 in Division Three, with eight failures.

The physically handicapped and the blind had only one candidate passing in Division One. The deaf did not succeed in getting any Division One.

The low numbers of SNE learners together with their failure rate, irked First Lady Janet Museveni who is also the Education minister. The First Lady said her ministry will promptly investigate and come up with the solutions on the same.

“In my view, the number of SNE learners who sit PLE are increasing not because we are having more children with disabilities, but the sensitisation being done and realisation by more parents that these children must not be kept at home but sent to school,” she said.

In his speech, the Uneb Board Chairperson, Prof Celestino Obua, said that they have already taken an interest in the candidates who have been ungraded.

“Management has been asked to carry out a detailed analysis covering the last five years to establish if there is a trend in terms of districts and schools of particular interest will be those districts where over 20 percent of the candidates are in Division One,” he said.

Examination malpractice

According to Uneb, scouts and examiners reported several cases of suspected external assistance rendered to candidates by third parties inside the examination rooms.

“Some of the teachers were caught red-handed writing Mathematics calculations and answers on the chalkboard as the examination progressed. These have been produced in court and charged under the relevant sections of the Uneb Act, 2021,” Mr Odongo said.

He also said the Board engaged with the district inspectors of schools on the quality of persons used to distribute the examination papers to sitting centres.

“As a result, the criminal practice of distributors cutting open question paper envelopes and sharing the questions through social media was controlled. This practice had become rampant. Other measures that the Board put in place, along with the support of security agencies resulted in the examination atmosphere being calmer than before,” he said.

“In accordance with 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,” he added.

Prof Obua said that the Uneb Board continues to battle with the malady of examination malpractice, the magnitude of which is worse at the PLE level.

This, he further revealed, is because of the very many stakeholders involved, each with varied interests.

“The major form encountered this year has been teachers found inside examination rooms writing answers for the candidates to copy. Arrests have been made and the culprits have been charged,” he said.

The First Lady directed the police and other security agencies to ensure that culprits involved in exam malpractices be prosecuted to avert the vice.

“I call upon the Uganda Police Force and the Judiciary to help us bring to book those persons proven to be complicit in any forms of examination malpractice. The act of assisting learners to cheat in examinations erodes the confidence and credibility of the entire education system—and the integrity of the country at large. When such learners who cheat go through unmasked, it communicates a bad image to the peers—and models a terrible trend,” she said.