Month: February 2013

In Nothingness Is Nothing

On By Shaaban Fundi, Ph.D.In Perspectives1 Comment

Nothing happens in a vacuum as they say. What happens in the education system is always a reflection of what is going on in that society—socially, economically and otherwise. What type of education do we want for our youth? What knowledge is of most worth in our society? Who should get it? These are some of the questions we need to ponder as a society. Passing blames to teachers and parents after the facts is not going to cure the ailment.

The last week’s form IV results did not just happen from nowhere. These results are a products of ill-conceived policies from Kigamboni that were years in the making. The passing on of blames like we always do will not cut this time around. Too much is at stake here. The country’s security is at stake. Here are the historical failure trends from 2009 to present: 2012 Form 4 results

DIV 1: 1,641 (0.4%)
DIV 2: 6,453 (1.6%)
DIV 3: 15,426 (3.9%)
DIV 4: 103,327 (26.0%)
DIV 0: 240,903 (60.1%)

2011 Form 4 results

DIV 1: 3,671 (1.09%)
DIV 2: 8,112 (2.41%)
DIV 3: 21,794 (6.84%)
DIV 4: 146,639 (43.60%)
DIV 0: 156,085 (46.41%)

2010 Form 4 results

DIV 1: 5,363 (1.53%)
DIV 2: 9,944 (2.83%)
DIV 3: 25,107 (7.14%)
DIV 4: 136,777 (38.9%)
DIV 0: 174,407 (49.60%)

2009 Form 4 results

DIV 1: 4,419 (1.78%)
DIV 2: 10,493 (4.21%)
DIV 3: 27,310 (11.2%)
DIV 4: 130,651 (52.61%)
DIV 0: 65,708 (26.46%)

 For starters, most teachers are ill prepared to teach the content they are teaching and parents are ill prepared to supplement the gap. So talking about parents’ involvement is just something I do not see value in right now. The pass rate numbers in Tanzania has been dwindling and going backwards for the past decade. No one was even looking at the trend and creating solutions to the impending disaster. You know the song: KINGA is better than CURE!

 Here is a personal example: I myself went to school all the way to UDSM in Tanzania. Never one time had my parents looked at my notebooks (the parents’ involvement piece). My parents are illiterate, not by choice, but victims of their times (Many of the students in Tanzania from rural areas and even the cities fall under this category). But, I was able to go to school and do well because the education system was a flat system back then. If the system is working as it is intended to, parents involvement is not such a significant factor.

The other issue back then was Equal resources in most schools which is not the case today. Some of the ward schools don’t even qualify to be called schools. Some have one teacher for 300 students. What kind of a miracle worker do you think these individuals are? What is the likely outcome?

Tanzania Form IV Results 2013: The Saga Continues!

On By Shaaban Fundi, Ph.D.In Atlanta, Dar Es Salaam, Education, Perspectives, Swahili, Tanzania2 Comments

The Tanzania form IV results 2013 are out and the picture they paint isn’t pretty. Let me get straight to the numbers first. The breakdowns by divisions are as follows:  division I-1,641; division 2-6,453; division 3- 15,426; division 4- 103,327, and division 0-240,903.  And the breakdown by gender for those who received divisions 1-3 are as follows: girls =7, 178 and boys = 16, 342.

Once again I have written and spoke about this trend for the past 3 years on the kibogoji blog. I guess you can read some of my previous posts on this issue to better inform yourself about the factors that have led to the scores to drop over the years. In some of those posts I attempted to offer solutions to this problem. Increasing the budget to education isn’t the solution, but most politicians in Tanzania seem to think and believe that it is.

On the numbers above, I feel like it is a letdown to women in Tanzania who have against all odds worked so hard to compete with men over the years and they had been doing really well on the education front. Looking at the gender disaggregated data, less than one half of the students who received divisions 1-3 are females. This is pathetic and is a major letdown to the women in Tanzania.

In this article I will not discuss what needs to be done from now forward. What I will say is this, action is needed and now.

Tanzanian Kids Going to School
Tanzanian Kids Going to School

This trend of failures cannot be sustained if the country wants to stay in the race to compete with other nations—academically, economically, and socially. I am damn sure that these results will prompt a knee jerk reaction through which committees will be formed and none in terms of their recommendations will be implemented.

It is high time for a reshuffle at the ministry level. The president cannot keep quiet no longer on the future of Tanzania, which is education to the youth. The minister and his high ranking files have failed to offer solutions to this problem for the past three years. Some heads need to roll.

Who will stand up and take responsibility for this if the president can’t do it? Can the good and law abiding citizens of Tanzania demand accountability? Accountability on how their tax money is spent? who spends it? and for what? To be exact, only 5.6% of those who sat for this exam got divisions 1-3 and the rest failed. That is 94.4%. Getting a division IV is equivalent to failing in my book—I do not know about you?