AfricaPress-Tanzania: OVER 2,970,000 students will be sitting for different national examinations in a span of one month starting today.
This was announced by the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) in a press conference citing them as Standard Four, Form Two and Form Four students this month and December.
With Form Two starting the exams today until 20th this month, a total of 646,148 candidates have registered, said the NECTA Executive Secretary Dr Charles Msonde.
Elaborating, he disaggregated the numbers to fall into 4, 948 secondary schools for the 646,148 students, where 301,831 (46.71 per cent) of them are boys and girls 344,317 (53.29 per cent).
In the group those with various disabilities were registered as 731 where 406 of them have impaired vision, 55 being blind, three deaf and 267 living with physical disabilities.
“There is a notable increase on the number of candidates registered for the Form Two National Exams in comparison to that of last year that was 609,502; indicating an increase of 36,646 (5.7 per cent),” he pointed out.
Form Four will be the next in the examinations lineup as they wait to sit for their Certificate for Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) as from 23rd November to 11th December in total of 6,727 Secondary Schools registering 490,103 candidates, adding that out of the number 448,164 candidates will be registered in schools and 41,939 sitting as independent candidates.
He categorised the number of students from the schools as 213,553 (47.7 per cent) being boys, and girls 234,611 (52.3 per cent), adding that in the group 893 are those with special needs, and 425 having impaired vision, 60 being blind, and 186 being deaf and 222 others living with other physical disabilities.
“There is also an increase of 2.7 per cent of the number of school students registered this year in comparison to that of last year that was 485,866,” he said.
Dr Msonde further said out of the independent registered candidates sitting for the CSEE, 18,118 (43.2 per cent) are boys and 23,821 (56.79) being girls, where out of the total number, 11 candidates are those grouped as requiring special needs and those living with impaired vision being seven and blind ones being four.
He further elaborated that a total of 9,426 registered for CSEE Qualifying Test (QT), where 4,147 (44 per cent) of them are males and 5,279 (56 per cent) being females.
Standard Four being the last to wind up the year’s national examination are scheduled to sit for Standard Four National Assessment (SFNA) from the 25th to 26th of this month with 17,812 pupils being tested.
However, Dr Msonde has directed regional and district examination committees as well as invigilators to ensure that there is an enabling environment for the exercise to be conducted smoothly at all the centres.
“The committees ought to ensure there is adequate security to curb cheating or any form of malpractice,” he instructed.
Dr Msonde further clarified that candidates with special needs would be given additional 20 minutes in Mathematics tests and 10 more minutes in other subjects as per Necta regulations.
However, he warned owners of private examination centres to avoid meddling in the exams, stressing that Necta would not hesitate to revoke their licences if any would be found to have violated Necta guidelines.
He said they should take the exams as important in assessing the proficiency of students during their periods in schools as they prepare to join a higher level of education.
“Results from these examinations help identify areas that are lagging behind and need to be focused on for improvements,” he stressed.
