Managing expectations is a valuable lesson

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:
Parents and guardians would also do well to manage their expectations and feelings of disappointment and the expression of the same. There’s no need to ridicule or berate an already disappointed child. What’s done is done. Let this instead be turned into a learning moment for both parent, child and school to forge a better way forward.
Yesterday, the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) finally released results for the 2024 Primary Leaving Examinations. The Board reported an improved overall performance compared to the previous year.
Other statistics worth noting include an increase in the number of candidates with special needs who sat for exams. Candidates, especially those with hearing impairments performed better than in the previous years. In 2023, 44 percent of deaf candidates were ungraded, but in 2025, the proportion dropped to 23 percent, showing great improvement.
Uneb also reported that 84,301 candidates scored Division One compared to 86,582 in 2023 while 397,589 passed in Division Two, 165,284 in Division Three and 75,556 in Division Four, 64,251 candidates were ungraded and will need to repeat Primary Seven. Despite the decline in distinctions, Uneb says the overall pass rate improved.
The number of candidates who sat for PLE increased to 797,444 from 14,883 centres compared to 749,347 in 2023. Out of these, 65 percent were Universal Primary Education beneficiaries while 34.3 percent were from non-UPE schools. These are just a few statistics to note about the recently released results that give one a general overview of the 2024 performance.
Away from the national overview, these numbers are made up of results that belong to individual candidates with expectations which have now turned into either disappointment or satisfaction and in rare cases indifferance.
We congratulate to all the candidates and schools that performed to their expectation. Well done.
However, it would be insensitive of us to ignore those for whom the release of these results have been a source of disappointment and frustration. To you, we say, take heart. It might not be comforting to hear this right now but the truth is that this is not the end, it’s only the beginning. You have a lifetime ahead of you to try again, so chin up, square your shoulders again.
Parents and guardians would also do well to manage their expectations and feelings of disappointment and the expression of the same. There’s no need to ridicule or berate an already disappointed child. What is done is done. Let this instead be turned into a learning moment for both parent, child and school to forge a better way forward.
The Ministry of Education and other stakeholders will also hopefully take the statistics released by the Board yesterday, study them and plug the gaps that will be found to be glaring.
Life is full of ups and downs, learning how to handle the downs is a valuable lesson that is best learnt sooner rather than later. It is times such as these that offer one a chance to.