A recent post on this website highlighted the national examination crisis in Tanzania, which was affecting some of our sponsored pupils. The basic facts at the time were:

Only 6.4 % of pupils in who sat the national examinations in Form Four actually passed at Division One, Two or Three (the equivalent of our G.C.S.E. passes at Grade C or above).

65.5% of pupils failed completely, with no pass grades at all.

The government immediately set up a commission to investigate what had gone wrong, and this commission was due to report back to the government on 21 April.

The results of the commission’s findings have just been announced, and the current headline responses in the national press are:

• Tanzania government has nullified 2012 Form Four Examination results and ordered the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) to standardise the results using 2011 rating system.
• The cabinet decision focuses on justice and fairness to all students and teachers whose efforts were measured using new system without their knowledge
• NECTA last year decided to use Fixed Grade Ranges, shifting from traditional National Mean Difference (NMD), which also incorporated Continued Assessment (CA) reports. “The Commission has found out that despite good intention of the Council to use the new system, there were no sufficient research and preparations done before implementation of the system
• the government had ordered NECTA to use NMD system and standardisation in all its examinations including Form Six exams and issue new results accordingly 
• the new system used by NECTA to grade the Form IV results last year was different from the traditional system used in previous years called National Mean Difference ( NMD). 

According to Lukuvi, the NMD also took on board the respective student’s average Continuous Assessment (CA) for each subject. Lukuvi gave no more details with regard to the new system (FGR) in grading students’ performance last year besides maintaining that such a system was not thoroughly researched and prepared before its application by NECTA. 

Whilst this information gives us hope now that perhaps some of our sponsored pupils may achieve a pass mark to go to College or Hight School, there is no news yet of when the papers are being re-marked, or when the new results will be published. In the meantime, we have asked our committee at Meserani to look into a company in Arusha (45 minutes by road from Meserani) who have started providing vocational courses for students. The committee has reported that some of our pupils who have completed their secondary education at Einoti School may well benefit from enrolling on one of these courses, but we need to wait for the revised examination results to be published first.

The whole situation is extremely frustrating for us, but must be even worse for our sponsored pupils. We do know from people at Meserani that our pupils have been extremely distressed, and are unsure about what their future is. 

We now have to wait for the revised examination results to be published, and will update the website with any news we receive.