More than 77,000 learners have failed the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), Daily Star Uganda can reliably report.
A total of 817,883 candidates from 15,388 examination centres registered for the 2025 PLE, compared to 797,444 candidates in 2024.
Of these, 522,036 candidates from 11,525 centres were beneficiaries of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme, while 295,847 candidates from 3,863 centres were non-UPE.
Gender analysis for 2025 shows that 389,469 boys were registered compared to 428,324 girls, indicating that more girls than boys completed the primary education cycle—a trend observed in recent years.
According to the results released by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), 77,080 candidates failed the examinations, while 10,570 learners did not turn up to sit for the exams.
“More candidates passed in Division One in 2025 than in 2024, an increase of 7,689. In absolute numbers, 7,503 more candidates passed the 2025 PLE compared to 2024,” said Daniel Odong, the Executive Director of UNEB.
The results show that 91,990 candidates passed in Grade One, 388,293 in Grade Two, 165,226 in Grade Three, and 84,724 in Grade Four, while 77,080 failed.
Further analysis indicates that boys performed better than girls. Among boys, 48,220 attained Grade One, 186,638 Grade Two, 77,453 Grade Three, and 37,658 Grade Four.
Among girls, 43,770 attained Grade One, 201,655 Grade Two, 87,773 Grade Three, and 47,066 Grade Four.
