Nothing to celebrate in Form 4 exam results

Dar es Salaam. The 15 per cent performance improvement in last year’s Form Four examination results is nothing to celebrate about, education analysts and activists have said.

The results released on Friday by the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (Necta) indicated that a total of 235,227 students passed. This is equivalent to 58.25 per cent of the candidates who sat for their exams in November last year, compared to 185,940 (43.08 per cent) in the previous year.

There was a slight reduction in failures with 151,187 candidates or 42.91 per cent, scoring Division Zero, from nearly 60 per cent in 2012.

Godfrey Boniventure, an education analyst, says the fact that about half of the candidates failed in last year’s examinations means the country is still in a sorry state education-wise. “Only 21 per cent of the candidates who scored between Division I and III qualify to continue to the A-level. Almost 80 per cent cannot proceed for further education. Is there anything to , celebrate?” he asked.

He also said, reducing failures from 60 per cent to 42 too is not enough. “About six years ago the percentage of failures was as little as 12 per cent. The situation now is worse.”

Rakesh Rajani, an activist who heads the Twaweza organisation, faulted in his Facebook page post the Continous Assessment (CA), which, according to Necta, contributes 30 per cent of the candidate’s final marks.

He argues, evidence shows that CA is most of the time not objective and usually highly inflated. “In two out of seven subjects you could be given 80 per cent in your CA and get only 10 per cent in your exams; and get absolutely zero in your other 5 subjects, and still pass,” he said.

secondary school.

The fact that this does not force leaders to resign in government and create an impetus to overhaul education from top to bottom says as much about the population as it does about the government,” he posted online.

The secretary general of Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners of Non-government Schools and Colleges (TAMONGSCO) Mr Benjamin Nkonya told The Citizen that there is no way the country can take pride from the results. The problems that bedevil the education system in the country are knonw; inadequate teachers’ welfare, poor policies, poor facilities…the government must be ready to inject and manage money in education,” he said.

The Ubungo Member of Parliament John Mnyika calls for activists and parents to press on the government to make public all reports of different commissions on the state of education in the country

He also said students’ performance has not improved with the continuous changes in the marking system since 2010. This only shows that the problem is not the grading system as some government officials tend to make Tanzanians believe.

“Truth is, the learning environment in most of the public schools is bad. There are no libraries, no books, no laboratories, teachers are demotivated, many of them incompetent. There is no way we can have good results in such a situation,” he said.