Real causes behind 2012 Form 4 Tanzanian students failure

‘The Commission established that the abolition of national form two exams in 2009 contributed to the massive failure recorded last year’ Minister for Education and  Vocational trainings Dr Shukuru  Kawambwa 

Dar es Salaam. Outdated questions, poor marking, inadequate time, lack of testing skills among those tasked to set exam questions and the removal of national Form Two exams in 2009 were among the key factors that caused the massive failure during the 2012 Form Four national exams The Citizen can authoritatively reveal today.

In May, this year, preliminary findings by the Commission of Inquiry set to investigate the 2012 massive failure, show that the unprecedented poor performance was mainly caused by the introduction of the new grading system called Fixed Grade Ranges (FGR) introduced by Necta for the first time last year.

But, according to details gathered by The Citizen from a leaked report the problem was more that the much-publicized introduction of new grading system.

For instance, the Commission established that there was lack of trust between National Examinations Council of Tanzania(Necta) and Tanzania Institute of Education, though the two institutions are supposed to work closely in managing the composition of exams. Necta is the statutory body tasked by the law to set exams, test and assess all students from primary to secondary schools, while TIE is an agency that deals with the introduction and management of syllabuses and curriculums.

Though the government has not made public the findings by the Commission, The Citizen has reliably established that the team, led by former Tanzania Commission for Universities Executive Secretary Prof Sifuni Mchome, which was formed early in March had completed and submitted the findings by mid-June.

 Prof Mchome was recently appointed permanent secretary of the ministry of Education and Vocational Training. It is noteworthy too that the 15-man team was left to operate with 13 members when nominated MP (Chadema) James Mbatia declined the appointment and later, resignation of prominent education activist Rakesh Rajani.

According to details gathered by The Citizen through off-the-record interviews, the duration set for the candidate to answer Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics was less than the fair time required given the nature of the questions that appeared in last year’s national exams.

As a result, many students didn’t finish their papers in these three subjects. The Commission concludes that for the nature and magnitude of the questions that were composed by NECTA in these three subjects, candidates needed more than what was allocated to them to perform better.

But, the Mchome-led Commission, established that the majority of the questions in Physics and Chemistry subjects were set out of syllabus.

 It was also established that while TIE is supposed to verify all exam questions that Necta sets, this has not implemented for years, leaving the exam body with full control of what is used to assess students.

 The verification by TIE, according to the Commission’s findings, would have made it possible for the agency to establish whether questions set by Necta meet the requirements of the current syllabuses and the curriculum.

 The Commission, according to our sources, established that TIE issued a competency-based curriculum while Necta set exams on content-based curriculum despite the paradigm shift since 2006, hence confusing  candidates.