Poor practical exposure and difficulty applying knowledge to real-life situations continue to affect science performance in the 2025 UACE examinations, UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo has said.
Science performance in the 2025 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations has continued to suffer due to inadequate practical exposure, according to the Uganda National Examinations Board.
Speaking during the release of the results on March 13, 2026, UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo said many candidates still struggle with practical science skills.
“In the Sciences, performance continues to be affected by inadequate practical exposure,” Odongo said.
He explained that candidates often misinterpret experimental procedures, which leads to incorrect data. Many also fail to analyse results properly or present them graphically.
Odongo noted that some learners draw graphs with non-uniform scales on the X and Y axes. Others fail to make correct deductions from their observations or write proper chemical equations.
He added that many candidates struggle to relate scientific concepts to real-life situations. In some cases, teachers skip key topics.
“Candidates also continue to struggle with relating Science concepts to real-life situations, and there is evidence that some teachers are skipping certain topics, for example in Physical Chemistry,” Odongo said.
He said the failure to apply knowledge to real-life situations remains a challenge across many subjects.
Despite the challenges, some subjects recorded improvements. Odongo said performance improved in Mathematics, Chemistry, Agriculture, Geography and Economics. Biology and Literature in English also showed progress.
However, there were notable declines in Entrepreneurship Education, Christian Religious Education, Fine Art and Physics.
Odongo said Science subjects generally performed better than Humanities.
In Humanities, he said many candidates misunderstood questions because they failed to grasp key concepts.
“In History, for instance, candidates demonstrated inadequate analytical and evaluative skills, weak logical flow of content, and insufficient use of relevant examples,” Odongo said.
He added that Religious Education candidates still struggle with questions that require them to apply teachings from holy books to everyday life.
Overall, UNEB reported that 68.9 percent of candidates qualified for the UACE certificate. Under current rules, a candidate needs at least a Subsidiary pass in a Principal subject to qualify.
For university admission, a candidate must obtain at least two Principal passes. Based on this requirement, 113,291 candidates, representing 68.6 percent, qualify for university admission. This is higher than the 92,273 candidates, or 65.5 percent, who qualified in 2024.
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Odongo said the increase means universities may need an additional 21,018 places to accommodate the larger number of eligible students.
He added that if admission to diploma programmes in TVET institutions is considered, where candidates need one Principal and two Subsidiary passes, about 145,129 candidates, representing 87.9 percent, would qualify.
Odongo said UNEB will prepare detailed subject reports and send them to schools to help teachers address the weaknesses identified in the examinations.
