By Vision Reporter

Municipalities of Masaka and Mbarara have topped this year’s Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) with the highest number of candidates passing in Division One.

Almost half of all Masaka and Mbarara municipalities’ candidates passed in Division One in last year’s PLE examinations, which were released on Monday.

They were followed by Fort Portal and municipalities of Ntungamo, Kabale, Bushenyi, Rukungiri, Mukono and Lira.

Of the 564,060 candidates, who registered to sit for the national examinations, 59,154 or 11% passed in Division One.

Kampala, comfortably in the 10th position, did not miss out on the districts with the highest number of candidates passing in Division One.

All municipalities were among the first 40 top UNEB districts in the country. This cements the view that schools in urban areas have continued to defeat rural ones in performance.

Among the worst performing districts were Nwoya, Kween, Amudat, Bulambuli and Alebtong. In Nwoya and Amudat, no candidate passed in Division One.

Overall, district ranking of the number of failures shows that Luuka, Kween and Namutumba had the highest number of failures.

In the previous year’s (2011) national examinations, Kampala, Mbarara and Wakiso were the best performing districts.

They were followed by Bushenyi, Rukungiri and Kabarole; most of whom have slipped in last year’s examinations.

This year, almost all top districts in the country had an increase in the number of pupils who passed in Division One. This is reflected in the general performance in the country.