Alarm From Exam Results

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

30 April 2011

The Form Six examination results are out, and as usual, there is jubilation and sadness. The candidates who gave it their best shot are happy, proud and confident, as they look forward to going to university to lay the foundation for future professional careers.

However, there are some who will find room in the tertiary colleges to pursue middle-level courses or join trades. But of concern to all should be the hundreds of thousands, whose academic life has come to an abrupt end. As experts have pointed out, the risk of some of this lapsing back into illiteracy is immense.

Therefore, the Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education Examination exam results, have cast a shadow on the implementation of the Secondary Education Development Plan (SEDP).

The SEDP 2004-2009 goal was to reach a 50 per cent transition rate from primary to secondary education by last year. This would have dramatically changed the outlook of secondary education with Forms 1 to 6 enrolment reaching 2 million, compared to 345,000 in 2003.

This would provide the country with secondary education graduates who would meet the challenges and exploit opportunities provided by globalisation and liberalisation. But the results released by the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (Necta) indicate that only 57,112 candidates registered last year.

Since about 400,000 students completed Form Four, just about 14 per cent sat the Advanced Level exam, which is far below the SEDP goal.The results are food for thought for the government, the ministry, educationists, teachers and parents and the whole country. In other words, this rate of wastage is alarming.

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