Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) subjects in Uganda are set to increase from four to six, with Religious education and kiswahili becoming stand alone subjects alongside , mathematics , english , social studies and science .
This change, part of broader education reforms, aims to strengthen practical learning and align primary education with competence-based standards.
he National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) aims to move beyond rote learning to a skill-based, competence-based approach.
Beyond increasing subjects, there are plans to replace the long-standing 43-year-old aggregate grading system with a letter-grade assessment.
This follows recent findings in the 2025 PLE results where English saw improved performance, while Social Studies (SST) and Science showed declines
The move has received mixed reactions regarding the increased workload on learners and the readiness of schools. Education experts also noted with reservation on whether there are enough teachers to teach the new introduced subjects .
Already, many secondary schools are struggling to implement the new competence introduced curriculum given that many teachers were not oriented and or reskilled to change their teaching methods .
These changes reflect an effort to align primary education with the revised lower secondary curriculum implemented earlier.
