NECTA is optimistic to have lessened cheats in exams

The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) has expressed its optimism over the research it conducted recently which has assured safety against any exams cheatings and other forms of misconduct. The call by the NECTA has come when a total of 917,072 candidates are expected to sit the two-day 2017 Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) in the country. The NECTA’s Executive Secretary, Dr Charles Msonde, gave the warning in Dar es Salaam yesterday, saying cheats would face severe punishment from relevant authorities. Dr Msonde also urged regional and municipal examination committees to ensure that examination centres were conducive for the exercise and invigilators plus other staff discharged their duties ethically. He said all was set for the vital PSLE which commenced at centres spread across the country and featuring 917,072 candidates -- 47.19 per cent being boys and girls forming 52.81 per cent. The figure of candidates reflects a considerable increase of 121,311 pupils above the 795,761 for 2016. The PSLE candidates will be examined in Kiswahili, English language, Science, Mathematics and Social studies, whereby 882,249 registered candidates will write their exams in Kiswahili language except for the English Language subject. Some 34,823 candidates will write their examinations in English language, and 1,326 will be visual impaired candidates. In last year’s PSLE results, NECTA announced that 555,291 out of 789,479 candidates, who sat the 2016 examination, had passed, which was equivalent to a 70.3 per cent pass rate, 2.52 per cent higher than the 2015 results. There was an improvement in science subject performance by 4 per cent compared to the previous year whereas performance in Kiswahili, English and Mathematics declined by between 0.39 and 12.51 per cent. The best candidate in the previous national exam was Japhet Stephano from Kwema Primary School in Shinyanga while his classmates Jamal Athuman and Enock Bundala emerged second and third, respectively. Justine Gerald and Shabani Mavunde from Tusiime Primary School in Dar es Salaam became the fourth and fifth best pupils, respectively. Others (positions in brackets) were Jacob Wagine (6), Isaac John Isaac (7), Daniel Kitundu (8), Benjamin Shabu (9), all from Kwema Primary School and Azad Ayatullah (10) from Kaizirege Primary School in Kagera Region. The list of top 10 schools with their regions in brackets in descending order include Kwema (Shinyanga), Rocken Hill Primary School (Shinyanga), Mugini (Mwanza), Fountain of Joy (Dar es Salaam), Tusiime (Dar es Salaam), Mudio Islamic (Kilimanjaro), Atlas (Dar es Salaam), St Achileus (Kagera), Gift Skilfull (Dar es Salaam) and Carmel (Morogoro).