education 13 March 2026 Daily Monitor (Uganda)
Girls Excel Over Boys in 2025 UACE Results Despite Fewer Numbers
Female candidates outperformed males in the 2025 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education exams, achieving higher proportions of top passes even though they made up less than half of the 166,400 registrants. UNEB highlighted stronger female results in humanities and called for more balanced subject choices to promote equity. Source: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/education/female-candidates-outshine-male-counterparts-in-2025-uace--5389898
The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) released the 2025 UACE results on March 13, showing female students surpassing males in key performance metrics despite being outnumbered.
Out of 166,400 candidates—a 17.2% rise from 2024—males dominated at 93,636 (56.3%), while females numbered 72,798 (43.7%). UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo noted that females had higher pass rates at upper levels: 44.6% scored three principal passes (32,291 girls vs. 39.5% or 36,615 boys), and 28.2% got two principal passes (20,393 girls vs. 25.8% or 23,992 boys).
Fewer females scored one principal pass (17.5% or 12,640) compared to males (20.7% or 19,198), and failure rates were lower for girls at 0.8% (590) versus 1.4% (1,301) for boys.
Girls shone in humanities like history, economics, and literature, while boys led in sciences such as physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Notably, more girls took up sciences this year, with increases in Math (25,001 from 19,863), Chemistry (14,487 from 10,533), and Biology (14,697 from 9,619), though their results trailed males.
Odongo attributed general poor performance to mishandling experiments, incorrect data interpretation, and weak graphical presentation.
This trend reverses the lower female enrollment at UACE compared to PLE and UCE, where girls outnumbered boys. UNEB Chair Celestino Obua praised investments in girls’ education but urged breaking gendered subject choices for balanced professional fields.
Source: Daily Monitor