Dar blunders in Form 4 exams

DAILY NEWS Reporter

RESULTS of 2016 National Form Four Examinations were released in Dar es Salaam yesterday, with six of the top ten poorly performing schools coming from the country’s commercial capital.

The National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) announced a slight increase of 2.44 per cent pass rate from the previous year. 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.

The new results, according to Dr Msonde, indicate a slight improvement from the 2015’s pass rate of 67.91 per cent. Candidates who scored divisions one, two and three, however, constitute only 27.60 per cent of all examinees, with Kiswahili being the subject which many candidates performed well and Basic Mathematic being the poorly performed subject, with the pass rate of only 18.12 per cent.

Dr Msonde said that the rate of cheating in the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) maintained a declining trend, with only 126 candidates, including one who wrote abusive language in the answer sheet, having their results nullified.

“The decrease in cheating rate shows that the Examinations Committees, District Councils and NECTA invigilators have been doing their job well, resulting into few cases of deceit ... this good job should be maintained,” he said.

Dr Msonde named the best ten overall candidates in the examinations with their schools in brackets as Alfred Shauri (Feza Boys), Cynthia Mchechu (St Francis), Erick Mamuya (Marian Boys), Jigna Chavda (St Mary Goreti), Naomi Tundui (Marian Girls), Victoria Chang’a (St Francis Girls), Brian Johnson (Marian Boys), Esther Mndeme (St Mary’s Mazinde Juu), Ally Koti (ACLP Kilasara) and Emmanuel Kajege (Marian Boys).

The best ten schools with their regions in brackets are Feza Boys (Dar es Salaam), St Francis Girls (Mbeya), Kaizirege Junior (Kagera), Marians Girls (Coast Region), Marian Boys (Coast Region), St Aloysius Girls (Coast Region), Shamsiye Boys (Dar es Salaam), Anwarite Girls (Kilimanjaro), Kifungilo Girls (Tanga) and Thomas More Machrina (Dar es Salaam).

NECTA chief also named the ten overall worst schools with their regions in brackets as Kitonga (Dar es Salaam), Nyeburu (Dar es Salaam), Masaki (Coast) Mbopo (Dar es Salaam), Mbondole (Dar es Salaam), Somangila Day (Dar es Salaam), Dahani (Kilimanjaro) Ruponda (Lindi), Makiba (Arusha) and Kidete (Dar es Salaam).

Dr Msonde said candidates performed well in History, Geography, Kiswahili, English Language, Physics, Biology, Commerce, Book-Keeping and Basic Mathematic.

However, only 18.12 per cent of all candidates passed Basic Mathematic exam while 77.75 per cent of all candidates passed Kiswahili exam. Dr Msonde said despite statistics showing improvement in performance rate in the CSEE, there is need to put more efforts in subjects like Civics, History, Physics, Basic Mathematics, Commerce and Book-Keeping whose passing rates were below 50 per cent.