Economy

Sixty per cent of Tanzania students fail exam

minister

Tanzania's Education minister Shukuru Kawambwa. Six out of every 10 Tanzanian students who sat last year’s ordinary secondary level examinations attained the lowest grade possible. File

Six out of every 10 students who sat last year’s National Form Four examination in Tanzania failed, according to results released by the government on Tuesday.

The number of students who scored Division Zero rose from 31.94 per cent in 2011 to 53.37 per cent in 2012.

A total of 240,903 students out of 397,126 who sat the 2012 exams failed.

According to the results announced by the Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, 397,136 (96.57 per cent) of the 411,230 students sat the examination.

Dr Kawambwa told a press conference that out of 397,136 students who sat the 2011 national examinations, only 23,520 students scored between Division One to Division Three.

This is equivalent to 5.92 per cent of those who sat the exams.

“Although I can’t tell you the exact figures, students who sat the 2012 Form Four examinations performed poorly compared to those who sat the 2011 exam,” Dr Kawambwa said.

A total of 1,641 students scored Division One.

This shows that the number of students with this score has dropped by 0.68 per cent compared to last year, when 1.09 per cent of the 450,324 students got First Division.

A total 21,820 candidates registered, but did not appear for the examinations last year.