The Minister of Education and Sports and the First Lady Hon.Janet Kataha Museveni has released UCE 2023 examination results with Male students performing better than female students.

Hon.Janet Museveni while at State House Nakasero celebrated the reduction in absenteeism by 5% as more learners qualified to go to higher levels.

The Minister advised students, parents, and teachers to encourage students to put more emphasis on Technical Education. However, Hon. Kataha Museveni confirmed that students who failed the 2023 exams will be given a chance to repeat the Ordinary level exams but only in Universal Secondary schools (USE) and will hold certificates of 2023, not 2024.The education minister stressed that the government is not willing to facilitate students in the boarding section in government schools as they are meant to be only for day scholars

Before handing over the results to the minister for release, The Executive Director of UNEB Dan Odong highlighted the general performance as follows:

The sciences continue to be a cause for concern, with less than 20 percent of the candidates obtaining Credit pass levels in Physics and Chemistry and 40 percent or more being unable to pass. It is worth noting, however, the upturn in performance in Biology, which has been recording a steady decline

Candidature increased by 15,008 (4.3%)from 349459 in 2022 to 364469 in 2023. The candidates sat from 3808 examination centers. Of these candidates, 118633(32.5%) were USE beneficiaries. The number of male candidates registered was 180471(49.5%) and that of females was 183998(50.5%). There were 3527 more females than males who registered for the 2023 examinations. A similar trend for PLE registration is now seen at UCE as well.

A total of 809 Special Needs Education (SNE) candidates (368 males and 441 females) registered for the 2023 UCE examination compared to 721 in 2022. This is an increase of 12.2% over last year. 

These consisted of the blind (35), those with low vision (183), the deaf (71), the dyslexics (90), and the physically handicapped (79).

 There were 351 others with other forms of disability that only needed to be given extra time. Only 12 (1.5%) candidates were absent.
The Board made adequate arrangements for these candidates, which included modification of questions, provision of questions written in Braille form, providing support personnel for the handicapped and dyslexics, and sign language interpreters for the deaf.

 Candidates with low vision were given question papers with enlarged print to enable them to read more easily. All SNE candidates were
allowed an extra 45 minutes for each paper.

The failure rate has also dropped by 0.5 percent. This means that 329,939 (95.9%) of the learners who presented themselves for the 2023 examination can progress to the post-UCE level.

There is a significant improvement in the English Language, Religious Education, Mathematics, and Biology. Noticeable drops were recorded in history, Agriculture, and Physics. Performance in the other subjects has remained comparable.

 In the English language, the presentation of crammed passages from texts in response to the question on original composition writing has been greatly reduced, which may explain the significant improvement in the candidate's performance.

The ministry declared Monday 11 March 2024 the commencement of senior five term one.