Uneb raises red flag on special needs exploitation, sets date for S.1 reporting

Minister of Education, Janet Kataaha Museveni, during the release of the 2024 PLE results at State House Nakasero in Kampala on January 23, 2025. Photo/David Lubowa
What you need to know:
- “These learners will report for their first term on February 17, 2025,” Minister of Education, Janet Kataaha Museveni
The Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) has raised concerns over schools falsely registering perfectly normal students as special needs candidates to exploit the extra time granted to such learners during examinations.
Mr Dan Odongo, the Executive Director of Uneb, revealed that some schools have been hiding such students under the "Others" category, which includes candidates with health conditions like asthma, epilepsy, and sickle cell anemia. He was speaking during the release of the 2024 PLE results at State House Nakasero in Kampala on January 23, 2025.
“The Board recognizes that such candidates may get attacks during the examination period and are therefore given an extra 45 minutes. However, these candidates do not require any specialized assistance beyond the extra time,” Mr Odongo said.
He added, “A worrying development, however, has been noticed in a few schools that are registering perfectly normal pupils as special needs candidates. These errant schools have been found to select their good pupils to benefit from the extra time.”
UNEB registered a total of 3,328 special needs learners for the 2024 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), up from 2,652 in 2023—a 25.5% increase attributed to increased awareness by UNEB and the Ministry of Education and Sports. The special needs categories included the blind, the deaf, the physically handicapped, and the dyslexic.
Mr.Odongo shared that 181 special needs candidates passed in Division One, 1,712 in Division Two, 637 in Division Three, and 371 in Division Four. However, 388 candidates were ungraded, and 48 special needs candidates did not turn up for the examinations.
He noted that the majority of the special needs candidates—51.5%—obtained Division Two, which was above the national mean performance of 50.5%.
Despite their challenges, many special needs learners performed well.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Janet Kataaha Museveni, has announced that the selection exercise for candidates who sat for the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) and qualify to join Senior One and tertiary institutions will take place next week.
Ms Museveni said the selection process is scheduled for January 30 and 31, at a venue to be communicated by the Ministry of Education.
“These learners will report for their first term on February 17, 2025,” she said.
A total of 722,730 out of the 786,981 candidates who sat for the PLE have qualified to join Senior One and tertiary institutions and will be selected for placement in various education institutions.
However, 64,251 candidates were ungraded and will be required to repeat Primary Seven. Ms Museveni said that these learners, if enrolled in Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools, should not be charged any fees.
“The encouragement I have for all those that passed PLE is that there are various opportunities for post-primary education in Secondary Schools as well as TVET [Technical and Vocational Education and Training],” she said.
“To those learners whose PLE results have not met their expectations, I encourage you to persevere and give PLE another try. As I stated last year, learners repeating P.7 in UPE schools are still eligible to benefit from the capitation grant,” Ms Museveni added.