PLE results 2019: Boys outperform girls again

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) Executive Secretary Daniel Odongo has said there has been a slight increase in the overall performance of pupils in last year’s Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), although boys outperformed girls.

Mr Odongo, who was speaking on Friday during the release of the 2019 PLE results at the Kampala Parents School, said male candidates performed better than their female counterparts at the upper grades and with lower failure rates.

He said 39,182 boys passed in division one (11.9 per cent) compared to 30, 061 (8.5 per cent) girls who got the same division.

“159,923 boys got division two while 158,232 girls also passed in division two. One the other hand 60,244 boys got division three compared to 80,176 girls. In division four there are 43,868 boys and 45,464 girls,” said Odongo.

Meanwhile, 26,976 boys and 39,176 girls were ungraded.

Exam malpractice:

Odongo said that although the examination was conducted smoothly, cases of malpractice in some schools were reported.

According to him, the schools and candidates whose exams have been withheld will be given a fair hearing.

He said malpractice was manifested in form of cases of external assistance given to candidates by third parties inside the examination rooms and because of this, about 61 people were arrested.

“There were several instances of fake papers circulated prior to the exams and 61 people have since been arrested from various parts of the country,” the Executive Secretary said.

Boys performed better than boys in 2018:

While releasing the 2018 PLE results last year, Odongo revealed 41,604 (13 per cent) of the male candidates passed in Division 1 compared to 35,529 or 10.5 per cent of their female counterparts.

The results also showed that up to 42.7 per cent of the boys passed in Division 2 compared to 40.6 per cent of the female candidates.

Senior One Selection:

Senior One selection on 23 and 24 January at UMA Multipurpose Hall.