The Ministry of Education has released this year’s results for Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE).

From the results released on Monday, October 4, out of 251,901 pupils who sat for the national examinations, 207,730 candidates passed, which represents 82.5 per cent of the general passing rate.

Girls constitute 55.4 per cent of those who passed the exams.

These were the first national examination to be conducted in two years following a prolonged closure of schools as the country battled with the spread of the highly contagious Covid-19.

"Most of the exams were done in lockdown, but students have performed very well, this shows how much effort was put into following up the students who spent most of their time at home, and made good use of the time by studying hard,” said Valentine Uwamariya, the Minister of Education, at the official release of the examination results.

The PLE results were released alongside the Ordinary Level results.

The passing rate is higher than the past two years despite the disruption in the academic year owing to the pandemic.

 In 2018, for instance, the passing rate was 81.1 per cent and 81.6 per cent in 2019.

The candidates who sat for five subjects in total, were classified into five divisions where the third division has a bulk of 30.1 per cent, followed by division two with 21.5 per cent and division one with 5.1 per cent.

A total of 44,176 candidates fell into division five (unclassified) which represents 17.5 per cent. This means that they will have to repeat.

"The Ministry will follow-up these students from their districts and schools and make sure that they study well and pass this time, and work with them and put in extra effort to help these students,” Uwamariya said.

According to the National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA), a total of 5,343 pupils missed their examinations, which represents 2.1 per cent while 1,117 did not sit for all the exams but their results came out as well.

NESA attributes the Covid-19 pandemic as a reason that made these students miss exams.

The Ministry announced that the academic year will begin on October 18, saying it was enough time for the students and their parents to start preparations.