By: Boy Fidel Leon
The calendar is set, the numbers are in, and Uganda’s biggest academic test is weeks away. UNEB has released the 2025 exam timetables, and the story they tell is one of growth, change, and new challenges.
Executive Director Dan Odongo made it official. The exams start on October 10 with UCE candidate briefings, followed by PLE on October 31 and UACE on November 7.
Schools can grab their timetables online, with hard copies coming alongside exam materials.
The headline figure jumps out: 1,416,468 candidates will sit exams this year, up 7.5% from last year’s 1,308,998. But dig deeper, and the real story emerges in the details.
UCE candidates surged 12.1% to 432,025, while UACE jumped 14.7% to 166,433. PLE grew more modestly at 2.5% to 818,010. From these numbers, it is clear that more students are staying in school longer, progressing to higher levels.
Perhaps most striking: for the first time in years, girls slightly outnumber boys at 51.5%. It’s a small margin, but it represents years of effort to keep girls in classrooms.
This marks only the second year of testing under the Competency-Based Curriculum for UCE. Still new enough to make teachers and students nervous. The approach blends practical skills with book knowledge, but change never comes easy in education.
Under the new system, continuous assessment accounts for 20% of the final results, with exams accounting for 80%. Head teachers have until September 30 to submit those ongoing scores. Miss that deadline, and students pay the price.
The funding split tells its own story: 719,016 students (51%) rely on Universal Education Programs, while 697,452 (49%) pay their own way. It’s nearly even, showing how Uganda’s education depends on both government support and private investment.
Odongo didn’t mince words about misconduct. Some schools have been falsely claiming Special Needs Education candidates to get unfair advantages, like unneeded sign language interpreters. “Such practices are unacceptable,” he warned, promising strict action.
UNEB is also watching for exam malpractice, with heightened vigilance planned throughout the season.
On the positive side, UNEB prepared Braille timetables for visually impaired students and reminded schools to post schedules where everyone can have access to them. The 4,802 Special Needs candidates represent a 4.5% increase. This is a small number, but every student matters.
UNEB is pushing updated Question Bank booklets for all levels, including the first-ever for the new Lower Secondary Curriculum. They’re available at UNEB’s Publications Office for schools wanting extra practice materials.
These numbers reflect Uganda’s education reality: more students reaching exam level than ever, gender gaps slowly closing, and a system adapting to new methods while managing explosive growth.
For students across Uganda, these exams represent years of work coming to a head. For the education system, they’re a test of whether growth and quality can go hand in hand.
As one education observer put it: “The real exam isn’t just for students, it’s for the system itself.“