Over 1.6 million pupils sit for standard four exams today
DAR ES SALAAM: OVER 1.6 million pupils in Tanzania Mainland are sitting for the Standard Four National Assessment (SFNA) today, marking the start of a series of national examinations.
The National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) Executive Secretary, Dr Said Ally Mohamed told reporters in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday that a total of 1,633,900 pupils are participating in the SFNA, with approximately 48.6 per cent being boys and 51.4 per cent being girls.
Among the 5,938 pupils with special needs participating in the SFNA, 1,185 have low vision, 132 have vision impairment, 1,178 have hearing impairment, 1,643 have physical impairment and 1,800 have intellectual impairment.
Dr Mohamed also said that a total of 879,291 registered candidates are expected to sit for Form Two National Assessment (FTNA) which begins on Monday next week. Of these, 869,673 are school candidates and 9,618 are private candidates.
He added that among 869,673 school candidates, 399,383 are boys and 470,290 candidates are girls, estimated to 45.92 per cent and 54.08 per cent respectively.
The NECTA boss further noted that some 1,863 Form Two candidates have special needs, with 1,053 with low vision, 83 with vision impairment, 83 with hearing impairment, 540 with physical impairment and 50 with intellectual impairment.
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Regarding 9,618 registered private candidates, Dr Mohamed said that 3,712 are boys equivalent to 38.59 per cent and 5,906 are girls equivalent to 61.41 per cent adding that 66 candidates have special needs, 65 low vision and one with vision impairment.
Elaborating, he noted that SFNA is important because it enables them to know the level of pupils in mastering advanced reading skills, writing and counting while FTNA measures the ability and understanding of candidates in all that they learned during the two years of their Secondary studies.
Moreover, Dr Mohamed said that all the preparations of SFNA and FTNA for 2024 have been completed, including the distribution of relevant examinations, answer booklets and all-important documents related to the exams to all regions and councils in Mainland.
NECTA further directed all examination committees in regional and district level to ensure security is maintained in all centres as per guidelines given to the council. The council also instructed invigilators to abide by ethics as it calls upon the candidates to observe ethics and truthfulness.
Dr Mohamed said school owners and principals should not interfere with the duties of invigilators during the exam period and warned any examination centre found to compromise the security of the national exams would be immediately cancelled.
On the candidates’ side, he said the council believes that teachers have prepared them well throughout the four years of primary education and two years of secondary education. Thus, it is the expectation of the council that students will take the exam under the examination rules.
“The council does not expect to see any student involved with fraudulent practices and if any student is identified to commit fraud, his or her results will be cancelled according to examination regulations,” he said.
NECTA called upon all stakeholders to report to the relevant bodies whenever they detect a person or group of people engaging in exam fraud.
