Standard Seven National Examinations

Hamjambo!

On 10th, 11th of September, the Standard Seven National Examination was held for the students to mark the end of the Primary Education. Since the end of August, the officers in my office have been busy for the preparation for this big event. Several meetings were held, and the seminars for the teachers in the area were held to make sure the examination will be held smoothly. As security was really tight at all the schools, I waited in the office on those two days, but my colleagues came to the office early in the morning around 4:30 a.m. and visited 5 or 6 schools to supervise them.

According to the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in Tanzania, some 1,047,200 students were expected to sit for the Standard Seven National Examinations this year. This is an increase of 31.87 % over the past year. One of the significant reasons of this increase is the success of the Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP) of 2002-2006, which boosted enrolment in schools.

On the contrary to those articles admiring the success of the PEDP, there are also some articles describing the issue of mainly the girls who fail to complete seven years of primary education due to pregnancy, truancy, teenage marriage, child labour and so on.
After the success of the PEDP, now the Tanzania government is trying to expand Secondary Education. It is of course a good thing for the society the opportunity of the education is expanded. However, I wonder if the same problems will be shifted to secondary schools in the future.

Nevertheless, we can see the hope in this country. Now the government spends quite a large extent of the budget to education, since many people believe that education is crucial and the only reliable tool to enable pupils to get out of poverty.

Here, if you visit primary schools, you will see how students learn with the insufficient state of the school equipments. Students have to share textbooks with other 6 or 7 students, insufficient number of desks, no water supply and insufficient number of toilets in some schools, and so on. However, pupils look very happy to come to school and learn. When I visit those primary schools, I am encouraged and feel very happy to see those children. I hope that their bright future will be guaranteed.

Tutaonana tena.