UACE results: Physics, biology performance improve

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The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has released the 2024 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) results, showing improved performance in subjects such as economics, Literature in English, physics and biology.

However, candidates’ performance declined in entrepreneurship education, Christian religious education, geography, mathematics, agriculture and chemistry.

UNEB executive secretary Dan Odongo noted that science subjects continue to have lower grades compared to humanities, which are better done.

Odongo said in the humanities, the problems continue to be poor interpretation of questions due to misunderstanding of the key concepts that determine the expected responses.

He said in economics, candidates showed an inability to relate their responses to real-life situations by using relevant examples, especially about Uganda.

“Poor mathematical skills also affected their responses in areas where they needed these skills,” Odongo observed.

He noted that poor syllabus coverage appeared to be the case in many centres, as evidenced by poor responses to questions from several topics, especially national income, market structures, taxation and monetary policy.

In sciences, Odongo said the general problems of inadequate practical composure continue to impact performance.

Odongo said the percentage passes at the upper levels (3P and 2P) are higher, while the percentage passes at the lower levels and the failure rate among female candidates is lower than for the males.    

First Lady and Minister for Education and Sports Mrs Janet Museveni released the 2024 UACE results today, March 14, 2025, at State House, Nakasero.

A total of 141, 996, Senior Six candidates registered for the 2024 examinations compared to 110,566 candidates in 2023; an increase of 31,430 candidates, representing 28.4%. Of these, 61,957 (43.6%) were females and 80,039 (56.4%) were males.

The centres where the students sat for the exams increased by 154 (7.3%) from 2,101 in 2023 to 2,255 in 2024.

However, the candidates who appeared for the examination were 140,888 compared to 109,486 in 2023, an increase of 31,402 candidates (28.7%). Of these, 61,598 (43.7%) were females and 79,290 (56.3%) were males.

According to data shared by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), 35,652 candidates registered under the Universal Post-Level Education and Training (UPOLET) programme, representing 25.1% of the total number of candidates sponsored by the Government.

UPOLET is a universal education programme that covers A-level and it is similar to Universal Secondary Education (USE) for O’level and the Universal Primary Education (UPE) for primary.