KAMPALA. At least 63 cases of examination malpractice were reported during the 2025 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) exams, Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB), has said.
According to the board’s executive director, Mr Dan Odongo, the nature of the items in the question papers do not lend themselves easily to malpractice.
“However, the cases reported are mostly in Mathematics and the practical papers in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. In these cases, there is overwhelming evidence that the candidates were given experimental results by teachers merely to copy into their tables. In the CBA setting, candidates use the scenario given in the examination paper to design and carry out an investigation using the apparatus given. Where the candidates have been helped, the design done by the candidates do not relate to results recorded,” Mr Odongo said during the release of UCE results at State House Nakasero on Friday, February 13, 2026.
According to him, when a random sample of 36,546 candidates from 118 districts— 49.7 per cent of whom were female—was used to obtain feedback on key quality aspects of the examination, 96.3 per cent indicated that the items in the examination papers were within the syllabus; 74.7 per cent found the time allocated adequate and 88.2 per cent said the items were clearly presented.
“In terms of level of difficulty, 4.7 per cent found the examination easy, 66.4 per cent found the examination fair while 28.8 per cent felt that the examination was difficult,” Mr Odongo said.
He further noted that the findings agree with the general performance of candidates which indicates that the largest number of candidates achieved the competency level of C (Satisfactory).
A total of 432,163 candidates from 3,975 examination centres registered for the UCE 2025 examination, compared to 359,417 candidates in 2024, an increase of 72,746 (20.2 per cent). Of these 204,292 (47.3 per cent) were males, while 227,871 (52.7 per cent) were females. 154,642 (35.8 per cent) were beneficiaries of the USE programme and277,521 (64.2 per cent) were Non-USE. A total of 429,949 (99.5 per cent) candidates were present for the examination in 2025 compared to 357,120 in 2024. Only 2,214 (0.5 per cent) were absent. Just like in 2024, the rate of absenteeism continues to drop.