KAMPALA. The national examinations body, Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) has officially released the 2026 timetable for national examinations including Primary Leaving Examinations (PL)E, Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) .
The timetables officially released on Monday indicate that the national exams will officially begin on October 10 with candidates sitting UCE, PLE will be conducted between November 3, November 4. While UACE will kick off on November 7 .
According to Uneb Executive Director, Dan Odongo , a total of 1,416, 468) candidates have been registered
for all the three national examinations.
“This is an increase of 107,470 (7.5 percent ), compared to last year’s candidature of 1,308,998. Of these, 51.5 are females while 48.5 percent are males,”
He explained that candidature at PLE level has increased from 797,444 (in 2024) to 818,010 (2.5 percent ) while the percentage increase at UCE is at 12.1 percent with candidature rising from 379,699 (in 2024) to 432,025.
UACE has recorded the highest percentage increase from 141,996 last year, to 166,433 this year (14.7 percent ).
Of the entire candidature, 4,802 are Special Needs Education ( SNE) Learners, representing a percentage increase of 4.5 percent from 4,587 ( in 2024).
The SNE candidates, include 3,619 ( PLE), 670, UCE and 513 (UACE).
Some 719,016 candidates (51 percent ) of the total candidature are funded by the government under the Universal Education Programs, while 697,452 (49 percent ) of the candidates are privately sponsored.