PLE results finally out

By Ronald Musoke

There was a collective sigh of relief inside the conference hall at Statistics House as the Minister of Education and Sports, Jessica Rose Alupo Epel finally announced the release of Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) for 2013.

Relief, because, it was on the final day of January, which is quite unusual for the Uganda National Examinations Board which normally releases the results in the middle of January.

A fortnight ago, media reports had indicated that there would be a delay in the release of results owing to a break-down of equipment at the Uganda National Examinations Board.

Speaking to an equally eager press, Mathew Bukenya, the executive secretary of the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) expressed his joy at having the results released within the month.

“We are happy that we have handed them over to you within the month of January as we normally do,” he said.

A total of 581,586 candidates sat for their PLE in November, 2013 from 11,506 centres across the country and 78.5% of the registered candidates were beneficiaries of the Universal Primary Education [UPE], while 21.5% were non-UPE.

According to the results, 85% of the candidates [494,839] passed the examinations with 9% [52,786] passing in Division one, followed by 42.5% [247,507] in second division, 21.5% [125,292] in third division, and 11.4% [68,554] in the fourth division.

Bukenya noted that these are the divisions whose score allow candidates to be admitted in post-primary institutions, meaning that 86,604 who were graded in Division U and X will have to re-sit for the examinations this year.

Bukenya said the performance of the 2013 candidates was comparable to that of 2012; however, it was better than that of 2011.

As expected, urban districts performed better than the rural districts.

According to the results, Fort Portal, Ntungamo, Mbarara, Kabarole, Entebbe, Kabale, Masaka, Jinja, Rukungiri and Gulu were the districts which performed best with the lowest failure rates ranging from 0% to 1.8%.

On the other hand, Kween with a failure rate of 34.6%, Bulambuli (30.3%), Bukwo (29.6%), Kaliro (28.1%), Luuka (27.3%), Iganga (26.7%), Buyende (25.5%), Bugiri (24.5%), Bududa (24.6%) and Namutumba (24.6%), all in from the East of the country were the worst performing districts.

Alupo said last year’s performance showed that the country is on the right track to realizing the millennium development goal of achieving Universal Primary Education.

She however noted that the government is still grappling with challenges in the sector and these are will be addressed by enhancing teachers’ capacity to deliver quality teaching and learning by training teachers in early grade literacy and numeracy, besides motivating them through increasing their salaries.

How to check for your results via SMS: Go to messages, type PLE, leave a space, type the full index number and then send to 6600.