KAMPALA – Only one candidate out of 68 who registered from the government Prison facility at Luzira was ungraded; as five missed the 2022 Primary Leaving Examinations –PLE but an identical number passed in first division, Uganda National Examinations Board – Uneb boss – Dan Odongo.
According to records, majority of inmates who sat for the 2022 PLE at the Uganda Government Upper Prison School, Luzira passed despite their different harsh conditions.
The results released on Friday indicate that a total of 68 candidates were registered as compared to the 58 registered in 2020 – of 63 candidates sat the finals.
The results, which First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni released at State House – Nakasero in Kampala, indicate that five candidates passed in division one, 34 in division two, nine in division three, and seven in division four, while one-failed.
The results indicate that five of the candidates did not sit the examinations.
According to Uneb, a total of 832,654 candidates from 14,691 centres (schools) registered for PLE in 2022 compared to 749,761 in 2020. ;
Uneb executive director, Dan Odongo said of the total candidates who sat PLE, 583,768 candidates (70.1%) from 11,306 centres were Universal Primary Education – UPE beneficiaries, while 248,982 (29.9%) candidates were non-UPE.
In his statement, Odongo added that the proportion of candidates benefiting from the Universal Education programme has increased by 1.7%.
Results indicate that 400,100 (48.1%) boys were registered compared to 432,554 (51.9%) girls, an indication that more girls completed the primary education cycle than boys; a trend which Odongo says has been on for the past six years.
The Uganda Prison Services established an Inmates University Study Centre at Luzira Upper prison in 2009. The centre came into collaboration with Makerere University Business School – MUBS to offer a diploma and degree courses in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. It is an open learning centre where all universities are free to conduct various courses that are beneficial to inmates – and to enhance the programme – formal education systems was introduced – hence the PLE exams.