By Damali Mukhaye.
The Uganda national examination board has registered a better performance rate in the 2017 primary leaving examination compared to 2016.
Releasing the examinations at the office of the prime minister , the UNEB Executive secretary Daniel Odongo said ,out of 628,606 pupils who sat for the exams,571,252 (90.9 percent) passed the exams while 57, 354 failed compared to 87 percent in 2016.
Mr Odongo said a total of 57,198 pupils passed in first division, 293,977 in second division, and 128, 573 in third division while 91,504 passed in fourth division.
Kampala district was the best performing with 7,745 candidates passing in first division, followed by Wakiso, Kiira municipality, Nansana municipality, among others, as Kween district topped the list of the worst 10 districts.
Meanwhile, the state minister for primary education Rosemary Sseninde attributed the poor performance in rural primary schools to teachers’ absenteeism which she said accounts for disparities in performance.
Giving a key note address before the official release of the 2017 PLE exam results, the UNEB chairperson Prof Mary Okwakol said the board had resolved to have distribution of PLE exam papers escorted by security agencies from storage stations to sitting centers with effect from this year.
She says this will go a long way in avoiding exam leakages and other forms of malpractices however calling for additional resourcing from government.
Results of 2,559 candidates have been withheld due to malpractices pending investigations.
