KAMPALA – The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has announced an extension of the registration period for the 2026 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE), Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE), and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) to 30th June 2026.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The announcement was issued by the UNEB Executive Director, Mr. Dan Odongo, while updating the press on Friday, May 29th, at the Uganda Media Centre about the ongoing candidates’ registration.
According to the UNEB boss, the normal registration deadline has been extended to 30th June 2026, unlike the April 1 to May 31 window in 2025, to accommodate newly accredited examination centres.
He noted that the education sector is at a crucial stage of curriculum transition and welcomed the reappointment of Hon. Janet Museveni and the two Ministers of State to ensure continuity, stability, and effective reform implementation.
“The registration deadline is now June 30th, 2026, which is later than in 2025, to allow new exam centres to join during this key curriculum change, and we welcome the reappointment of Hon. Janet Museveni and the two ministers to keep reforms on track,” confirmed Dan Odongo.
Odongo warned that late registration runs from 1st July to 31st July 2026, with no acceptances after that date, carrying a 100% surcharge for PLE and 50% for UCE and UACE, and urged centres to register early to avoid congestion.
He added that the government will pay fees for UPE, USE, and UPOLET sponsored candidates, while private candidates will pay 34,000 shillings for PLE, 164,000 for UCE, and 186,000 for UACE.
This year’s UCE candidates are the third cohort under the Competency-Based Curriculum, required to register for eight to nine subjects with mandatory Continuous Assessment and project scores for certification.
Candidates who sat PLE in 2022 or earlier and completed four years of lower secondary education are eligible for UCE, while UACE pioneers under Competency-Based Assessment must have passed UCE in 2024 or earlier and finished a two-year Advanced Level course.
Meanwhile, Dan Odongo warned school heads that charging any fees not set by UNEB and calling them UNEB fees is an offence under Section 33 of the UNEB Act.
He stated that the penalty for the offence is a fine of 40 million shillings, up to 10 years in prison, or both, plus loss of the school’s examination centre status and deregistration for any convicted teacher.
The Executive Director further charged parents that when excessive fees are falsely claimed as UNEB registration fees, they should report to the nearest police station without any delay or hesitation.
Schools that register private candidates as government-sponsored will pay back double the defrauded amount and lose their centre number. All schools must display candidate registers sixty days before exams for verification of names, birth dates, gender, and photos.
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