[Tanzania] Underperformers on the defensive

• Blame their poor show on factors beyond their control
• heads of schools grilled.DAR ES SALAAM’s underperforming schools in the just released Form Four National Examination results have come out strongly, defending their poor show, which they blame on factors beyond their control.
  

Long distances that students commute daily to and from school, truancy, poor support from parents and shortage of especially science teachers are some of the factors that have adversely affected the results of many Dar es Salaam-based schools.

In separate interviews with the ‘Daily News’ yesterday, teachers, parents and Msongola Ward Education Coordinator Venance Mwakilembe, said before pointing an accusing finger to the schools that underperformed, it is critical to take stock of the existing challenges.

At Kitonga, Mbondole and Nyeburu Secondary Schools, which are in the list of the ten worst performers, the roads heading to the schools are themselves a serious impediment to students commuting daily to and from school.

Ward education leaders and teachers at Kitonga and Mbondole secondary schools in Ilala Municipality were busy with a series of meetings for the better part of yesterday, barely a day after the results were released. However, Dar es Salaam Regional Education Officer (REO) yesterday summoned the heads of all the six schools that underperformed to explain reasons behind the failure, said Mr Mwakilembe.

The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) released the 2016 Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) results on Tuesday, with six of the top ten poorly performing schools coming from the country’s commercial capital. NECTA Executive Secretary Charles Msonde, said a total of 277,283 candidates or 70.09 per cent of the 397,275 who wrote the examinations last November passed.

As students from other schools that excelled in the exams celebrated, sombre mood reigned at Kitonga Secondary School and others that underperformed. Mr Mwakilembe said majority students failed due to the long distances they were commuting to attend classes.

From the main junction of the main road to Kitonga school, according to Mr Hassan Waziri, a resident at the area, students were compelled to walk up to three kilometres for they could hardly afford hiring motorbikes.

The school’s acting head master was reluctant to comment, saying he was not the institution’s spokesperson, “I am totally confused with these results, I prefer reserving my comments.” Mbondole Secondary School Acting Headmaster who preferred to remain anonymous, saying he was not the spokesperson, told the ‘Daily News’ that it was difficult for the calibre of students who were enrolled at the school to pass due to their low pass rates in their Standard Seven examinations.

“We had students here with between 60 and 70 marks out of the 250 points in their standard seven examinations. It is difficult for this calibre of students to cope with secondary education,’’ he said, hinting that the school had only one physics teacher, teaching the subject from Form One to Four.

And the lone teacher was only deployed at the school last year. But, Roneko Nziku, a student at Nyeburu School, which is among the ten worst performers, remains optimistic, notwithstanding the results.

“I remain determined to pursue science subjects because we have sufficient teachers who are doing their best,” he said. Unlike other schools in the worst performance list, Nyeburu is the science and arts school with 35 teachers and fully equipped physics, chemistry and biology laboratories.

According to Nziku, in the 2015 Form Two exams, out of the 65 students, a mere 10 per cent failed. “This motivated us to study harder knowing that the future is bright… teachers are always encouraging us to study harder.”

The ‘Daily News’ team visited the school yesterday after school hours and found a couple of Form Two students staying behind for private studies. A resident near the school, Severino Wami, attributed the school’s poor performance to students’ indiscipline.

“Most of the students here reside almost 20 kilometres away from the school, this alone poses a challenge for teachers to closely monitor their behaviour after school hours,” he said. Subira Kitumbo, the mother of two students at Nyeburu, admitted to have not closely monitoring her children, saying only their father had severally met teachers on the boy’s school performance.

Meanwhile, MAUREEN ODUNGA and JIMMY LWANGILI report that six heads of the underperformed schools were yesterday grilled by the office of the Dar es Salaam REO. The schools are Kitonga, Nyeburu, Mbopo, Mbondole, Somangila Day and Kidete. Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the acting REO, Ms Janeth Nsunza, said the headteachers had started giving their statements as of yesterday.

“The region has received the results with great disappointment, contrary to our expectations and emphasis on provision of quality and better education,” said Ms Nsunza, pointing out that the performance indicators in the region were spotted from the mock exams results.

The results prompted the district executive directors to write letters to heads of schools to pull up their socks to avoid negative outcomes in the final exams. Ms Nsunza said the six schools are among the 128 schools in the region which were constructed through efforts of the people.

source:www.dailynews.co.tz