UNEB Registers Record 1.4 Million Candidates for 2025 Exams

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has registered 1,416,468 candidates across the three national examinations for 2025, reflecting a growth of 107,470 candidates (7.5%) compared to last year’s 1,308,999.

According to Mr Dan Odongo, the UNEB Executive Director, 51.5% of the registered candidates are female, while 48.5% are male.

At the Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) level, candidature rose from 797,444 in 2024 to 818,010 in 2025, marking a 2.5% increase.
At the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) level, numbers jumped from 379,699 last year to 432,025 this year, representing a 12.1% increase.
The Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) recorded the highest growth, rising from 141,996 candidates in 2024 to 166,433 this year, a 14.7% increase.

Officials noted that these figures remain provisional, citing recent discoveries of unregistered candidates. For example, last week UNEB found a school in Lugazi with 138 UCE candidates and 10 UACE students who had not been registered, prompting immediate action by the Board.

This year’s candidature includes 4,802 special needs learners, up from 4,587 in 2024, representing a 4.5% increase. These comprise 3,619 at PLE, 670 at UCE, and 513 at UACE.

UNEB reported that 719,016 learners (51% of total candidature) are beneficiaries of the Uganda Universal Education Program.

Under the competency-based curriculum (CBC), continuous assessment (CA) contributes 20% to the final examination score, while the end-of-cycle exam contributes 80%. In addition, projects appear independently on the certificate and are assessed separately.

While schools initially faced challenges submitting CA scores, Odongo confirmed that 100% of Term 1 scores were received, along with 96% of Term 2 scores. The Board urged the remaining 4% of schools to submit their records before the September 30 deadline, warning that failure to comply could disrupt grading.

He also cautioned schools against fraudulently registering normal candidates as special needs learners to gain benefits such as the 45 extra minutes granted during exams.

“This is criminal and fraudulent,” the Board warned, adding that sanctions would be applied against schools found guilty of the malpractice. “It gives an unfair advantage to otherwise normal children over genuinely disadvantaged candidates.”

In preparation for the new competency-based examinations, UNEB announced the release of updated past paper collections, popularly known as question paper banks. For the first time, the Board has printed UCE past papers aligned to the CBC format, which are now available for purchase at UNEB sales points.