Tayari News
KAMPALA – The results of the 2025 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE), which was conducted on 3rd and 4th November, 2025, have been released on 30th January 2026 under the theme: “Embracing security and holistic assessment of learners in a dynamic environment.” The ceremony was presided over by the Minister of Education, Mrs. Janet Kataaha Museveni.
Here is what you need to know;
A total of 817,883 candidates from 15,388 examination centers registered for PLE in 2025 compared to 797,444 in 2024. Of this number, 522,036 (63.8%) from 11,525 centres were Universal Primary Education (UPE) beneficiaries, and 295,847 (36.2%) of the candidates from 3,863 centres were Non-UPE.
Candidature increased by 20,439 (2.6%) over the previous year. In 2025, analysis by gender shows that 389,469 (47.6%) boys were registered compared to 428,324 (52.4%) girls, indicating that more girls than boys completed the Primary Education cycle. This has been the trend in recent years. The percentage was 52.5% for the girls in 2024, whereas for the boys was 47.5%.
The Board registered 3,636 learners with Special Needs of various categories, including the blind, the deaf, the physically handicapped and the dyslexics, compared to 3,328 in 2024.
This is an increase of 308 (9.3%) candidates. The number of SNE candidates continues to increase annually due to the awareness that has been created in the schools by UNEB, and the Ministry of Education and Sports. In this group, female candidates constitute 48.3% while 51.7% are males.
Prison Inmates
The Board also registered 61 candidates from Uganda Government Upper Prison, Luzira (54 males and 7 females), and 40 from Mbarara Main Prison (39 males and 1 female). The percentage of absentee candidates in 2025 remained the same as that of 2024, but lower than the previous years.
Like in 2024, less than 20% of the candidates exhibited higher ability levels in any of the subjects. English had the highest percentage of candidates (18.5%) demonstrating higher ability levels, followed by Mathematics (16.4%), and Social Studies with Religious Education (15.9%). Two-thirds of the candidates exhibited a medium ability level in all four subjects. The percentage of candidates who exhibited lower ability levels was about the same in all the four subjects at 16%.
Candidates performed best in English, followed by Integrated Science and Mathematics. Social Studies with Religious Education (SST) was worst done. Compared to 2024, English showed an improvement while SST showed a significant decline in performance.
Girls performed better in English. This appears to be the natural trend; boys performed slightly better than girls in Science, and in Social Studies with Religious Education, boys have also performed slightly better than the girls.
Fewer boys are in the lower grades of 7 and 8, and the fail grade 9. Most of the candidates are between aggregate 11 and 30.
More candidates passed in Division 1 in 2025 than in 2024, an increase of 7,689. In terms of numbers, more candidates (7,503) passed the 2025 PLE compared to 2024. Males performed better than the females and recorded a lower failure rate.
At the Uganda Government Upper Prison School, Luzira, 61 candidates were registered as compared to the 71 registered in 2024. Of the 61 candidates who registered, 58 candidates sat, 4 passed in Division 1, 27 obtained Division 2, 13 obtained Division 3, 5 obtained Division 4, and 9 were ungraded; while 3 did not sit for the examination.
At Mbarara Main Prison Inmates Primary School, 40 candidates were registered, 39 of whom sat the examination while one was absent. Of those, 7 obtained Division 1; 15 are in Division 2, 10 are in Division 3, 5 are in Division 4, and 2 were Ungraded.
Of all the Special Needs Education candidates registered, 35 did not take the examination. The majority of candidates obtained Division 2 (48.4%).