Females outperform males in UACE 2024

In the 2024 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE), female candidates, despite being fewer in number, have outperformed their male counterparts in terms of overall performance.

Releasing the results at the Nakasero State House Lodge on March 14, 2025, Mr Daniel Odongo, the Executive Director of the Uganda National Examination Board (Uneb), shared that a total of 140,888 candidates sat for the examinations. Of these, 61,598 were female, and 79,290 were male.

Mr Odongo explained that while males had a higher percentage of passes at the upper levels (three Principal and two Principal passes), females performed better at the lower levels, with a lower failure rate.

In terms of performance, 26,928 female candidates achieved three Principal passes, compared to 27,410 males. Additionally, 16,962 females attained 2 Principal passes, while 20,973 males reached the same level. A total of 11,058 females received one Principal pass, compared to 18,175 males, while 6,212 females achieved one Subsidiary pass compared to 11,538 males.

Importantly, only 438 females failed the examination, compared to 1,194 males.

At the subject level, females performed better than males in Humanities, while males outperformed females in most Sciences. However, in Physics, female candidates outshone their male counterparts.

Uneb Chairperson, Mr Celestine Obua noted that female performance has remained consistently strong over the years.

"Female candidates have maintained the trend of outperforming their male counterparts in terms of percentages at all levels and have shown a lower failure rate. However, most females tend to take Humanities, where they have also done better than males," Mr Obua said.

Despite the strong performance of females, males generally outperformed females in previous education stages, such as Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) and Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE), which were released earlier in the year.