KAMPALA, Uganda — The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has revealed that Mathematics and Chemistry were among the best-performing subjects in the 2025 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) examinations, while several humanities and creative arts subjects recorded a decline in performance.
According to UNEB, the overall national pass rate remained high at 98.9 percent, despite variations in performance across different disciplines.
Top Performing Subjects
Mathematics and Chemistry emerged as the top-performing subjects in the 2025 examination cycle, recording notable improvements in grades at the principal pass level.
The improvement in Mathematics is particularly significant given the sharp rise in enrollment. UNEB noted that entries for Mathematics have nearly doubled since 2020, reaching 70,132 candidates in 2025.
Other subjects that also registered improved performance include:
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Biology
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Agriculture
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Geography
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Economics
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Literature in English
UNEB highlighted that the improvement in Biology is especially notable because the subject had experienced stagnant or declining performance in previous years.
Female candidates also performed strongly, outperforming males in the general pass rates for Mathematics and Physics, although male candidates still dominated the highest “A” grade bracket.
Subjects With Declining Performance
Despite the overall positive results, UNEB reported a decline in performance in several humanities and creative arts subjects.
Among the subjects that registered the most significant drops were:
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Entrepreneurship Education
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Christian Religious Education (CRE)
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Fine Art
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Physics
In Entrepreneurship Education, the percentage of candidates scoring an A grade dropped to 1.5 percent, down from 3.6 percent in 2024.
Similarly, Christian Religious Education saw top grades decline from 6.3 percent to 4.3 percent, while Fine Art recorded a drop from 4.4 percent to 2.9 percent.
Physics was the only core science subject to record a decline, with A grades falling from 6.6 percent in 2024 to 3.5 percent in 2025. The subject also registered a slight reduction in candidate entries.
Meanwhile, Subsidiary Mathematics continues to pose a major challenge for students, with examiners reporting a high failure rate in the subject.
UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo attributed many of the performance challenges to what examiners described as an “application gap”, where students struggle to apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations.
Examiners highlighted several key concerns across different subjects.
In Christian Religious Education, many candidates failed to connect biblical teachings to everyday life situations.
In Geography, students showed weak data analysis skills and difficulty relating fieldwork findings to the physical environment.
Science candidates, particularly in Physics, were affected by limited practical exposure, which led to mistakes in experimental procedures and poor interpretation of data.
In History, examiners reported that many scripts lacked strong analytical reasoning and logical presentation required for higher marks.
Language and Communication Challenges
UNEB also raised concerns about performance in local language examinations, noting that many candidates demonstrated weaknesses in grammar and struggled to translate passages into English effectively.
The 2025 examination cycle recorded a 17.2 percent increase in the number of candidates, reflecting the growing demand for advanced secondary education.
A total of 113,291 candidates qualified for university degree programmes, maintaining Uganda’s strong transition rate to higher education.
UNEB has called on schools and teachers to strengthen practical learning and analytical training in order to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-life application.
