QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN TANZANIA.(UDOM MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION ASSIGNMENT)

Quality education is the one that provides all learners with capabilities they require to become economically productive, develop sustainable livelihoods, contribute to peaceful and democratic societies and enhance individual wellbeing. The learning outcomes that are required vary according to context but at the end of the basic education cycle must include threshold level o literacy and numeracy, basic scientific knowledge and life skills including awareness and prevention of diseases. Quality education is an education that can provide answers to the problems that faces the environment. (King, 2013).

Quality education is what brings forth manifestable development of any country. Quality education is a pillar of development of all countries the world over. The study in Tanzania has revealed that there are several factors, which have contributed to the poor quality of education in secondary schools especially in examinations. Those related to inconformity between numbers of teachers versus students, poor quality of textbooks, poor products of pupils joining secondary schools, absence of reliable teachers guide, absence of action based examinations, absence of laboratories, among others. The second set are factors related to the administration of education, which include decision of removing  standard four and form two exams, decision to liberate textbooks used in the entire cadre of primary and secondary education among others. (King, 2013).

Tanzania has recently been in demise of education failures if gauged through the performance of form four and form six secondary leavers. The trend of the results from 2009 seems to pose serious challenges for the future development of the country.  We appreciate the fact that education is a backbone for development of any country. Hence, the tendencies on the performance of the students tell a lot in relation to future development of the country.

In Tanzania, much of efforts have been in place to increase numbers of graduates such as building secondary schools in each ward, also the government transformed one of the biggest schools, into educational college for offering degrees instead of Diploma, and form six certificates. Such conversion was made vivid to Mkwawa High Schools, which was made an affiliate college of the University of Dar es salaam and recruits about 3000 students in teaching profession in total.  Chang’ombe teachers college was the second, which recruits about 2000 degree candidates instead of Diploma, which was offered before.  These were considered short run measured which intended to increase the number of teachers within a short period. Further, the government put in place long-term plans for ascertaining enough numbers of teachers in the end. In this vein, the government has to create a university in the capital city Dodoma, which is meant to recruit about 45,000 students of which 16,000, is school of education.  The attempt made by the government provides a prediction to end the teachers’ problem in Tanzania by the end of 2014/2015.  Currently, the ministry of education recruits about 25,000 teachers from both tertiary and universities. (Norman, 2013).

But yet what is persistently been happening poses for the need of research to investigate the causes of the form four and form six leavers failures with the view to assessing the quality of education in Tanzania. In the year 2011, the result of form four students indicate that about 51% attained a zero class (Ministry of education report, 2012). The report of the same ministry this year has again revealed that 63% of students have attained a zero grade (Ministry of Education, 2013).

There are some crucial factors that lead to poor performance of secondary education. The factors are of three major groups, namely those related to the system of education, which is essentially controlled by the ministry of education or any ministry responsible for the provision of the same. The second groups of factors are those related to quality of teachers that train primary school students, who are the candidates of secondary education. The third groups of factors are those related to resource materials, which the ministry of education mitigates. (Norman, 2013).

Therefore, the following are the factors showing the quality of education in Tanzania by considering how examinations are conducted in secondary schools;

Implementation of “big results now” by national examinations council in Tanzania; The government of Tanzania has decided to priorities the available resources to strategic sectors so as to realize the Big Results Now(BRN). The education Sector is among the six prioritized sectors, which has developed 9 key initiatives to improve the quality of basic education and thereby increasing the pass rates in secondary schools. The official school ranking as per examination results according to the performance and improvement is among the 9 initiatives. In this ranking, schools are classified into bands of three major groups namely green, yellow and red representing high, medium and low performing schools. Although there are some weaknesses in implementation adoption of BRN but it has increase the number of graduates in secondary school who join the universities.

Continuous Assessment; are of formative nature. It should have diagnostic value in helping the learner develop a realistic self image and inform the teacher on how the teaching and learning process can be developed. It determines the progress of the learner and monitor the learning process occur throughout the four years cycle. The assessment tools which are used are such as assignments, tests, projects and terminal examinations. The scores for continuous assessments share to constitute as a part of the final assessment of the student. Terminal test scores and project scores are sent to NECTA as Continuous assessment of the student. (TIE, 2005)

Form two examinations: It was noted that during the fourth regime, the ministry of education removed form two exams, which was meant for weighing the ability of students entering form three. The removal of these examinations created doom since students   could sail up to form four without seating for mandatory examinations that intended to gauge the performance of students at that level. Hence, students who were weak could not fear failing the exam, since it was a guarantee that, once a student has joined form one, would equally seat for the screening exam in form four. (Norman, 2010)

Form four examinations; for a secondary school student to complete his or her ordinary secondary education, he/she is supposed to sit for this examination at the end of Form Four. This examination should be taken after the candidate has passed the Form Two national Examination.  But unfortunately now days the candidates do not repeat the class after failing the form two examinations, hence students have free path to form four examinations regardless of their form two performance. This contributes to poor results in form four examinations. This examination is used for selection of students for further education, training and direct employment. (TIE, 2005)

Examination Structure; according to the ordinary level curriculum, the examination shall have questions which measure all levels of the learning domains. Each examination paper shall consist of not less than three sections in which section one shall test all levels of domains but the main focus shall be on cognitive domain, while sections two and three shall focus more on the affective and psychomotor domains. Science and technology subjects shall be examined in two papers which are theory and practical whereby each paper shall carry a weight of 50% of the total marks of the respective final examination for the subject. Language subjects shall be examined in both written and oral. . (TIE, 2005)

Assessment Methods; assessment methods for the Secondary Education Curriculum shall emphasize the competence based teaching and learning. These methods shall probe students’ understanding, reasoning and critical thinking rather than their ability to return memorized facts.  The methods shall include: Portfolios, Rating scales and rubrics, Checklists, Oral presentations, Project work, Practical tasks to demonstrate performance skills, Written essays or reports, Analysis, for example of texts. (TIE, 2005)

Weighting and Grading System, according to the ordinary level curriculum, the structure for ordinary secondary school assessments should consist of two components:

          a) Academic component comprising of continuous assessment weighting 50% and the final examination weighting 50%.

         b) The character and attitudes towards work assessment (weighting 100%). In this component, seven character attributes are assessed. These are diligence, valuing work, caring for property, sociability, obedience, honesty and cleanliness. Each of these character attributes shall be assigned a percentage weighting according to its importance, all of which add up to 100%.  Teachers should assess and send the marks to NECTA for compilation in accordance to agreed percentage as follows: 100-80% signifying very good (1 point), 79%-40% signifying good (2 points) and 39%-0% signifying poor (3 points). The CSEE examination has a five (5) point grading scale.  Grade A, B, C, D and F. Grade A indicates the highest level of achievement (1 point), Grade B indicates 33 very good principal pass (2 points), Grade C indicates good principal pass (3 points),Grade D indicates satisfactory (4 points) and F indicates failure (5 points). (MOEC, 1995).

Multiple-choice examinations: The ministry of education has transformed examinations in such a way that examinations are multiple choices. In the past prior to the multiple choices, examinations were not multiple choices. Pupils were supposed to indicate how they have arrived at the answer. Hence, three columns were noted, which are question, work/solution, and answer. This cultivated a sense of not copying since for a student to pass the entire exams, was supposed to show clearly the work done regarding the answer. Invigilators could supervise pupils effectively since the mode of exams supported absence of cheating. (URT, 2004).

Change of content based to competence based examinations: Findings indicate that the change of content based to competence based was wrongly adopted without critical thinking into reiterating the meaning of the two concepts.  Generally, from professional point of view, it is the content, which tells the competence. The change from content based, which was executed since independence, altered the entire teaching career as teachers college also changed the format from content based to methodology based. (King, 2013).

Weak supervision of daily performance: Another factor contributing poor quality education in secondary schools is weak supervision on daily basis pursued through the ward education coordinators. In Tanzania each ward has a mandatory at least one government secondary school, and the entire area is supervised through the Ward Coordinator, who is professionally a teachers. They have not been keen in supervision of these schools. Reckless in supervision has contributed to reckless in teaching and finally lead to massive failures of students in their final examinations. (King, 2013).

Therefore, the factors leading to poor quality of education in secondary schools are several. They range from those, which are due to irresponsiveness of parents, teachers, ministry of education, poor setting of examinations, lack of consistence of syllabus, poor quality of textbooks, poor quality of training rendered to teachers in modern colleges in recent years, weak supervision rendered by the educators, and incongruence between examinations and policy on examinations. These factors suggest more researches on education, which should incorporate primary education, secondary schools and university education. In primary education, the research should find out factors leading to poor quality of pupils entering form one in secondary school. Finally, quality education is a pillar of development of all countries the world over.

                                                       REFERENCES

Dr. Norman Adamson Sigalla King,(2013), “Investigation of Factors Hindering Quality

                                   Education in Secondary Schools in Mbeya, Tanzania”. Mbeya- Tanzania

Ministry of Education and Culture (MOEC), (1995) Education and Training Policy. MOEC –

                                                                      Dar Es Salaam  

Norman, A.S (2005). “Development is a war what do we do?” Lefkosia, Cyprus.  

Norman, A.S (2010). “Maximizing students potentials in higher learning institutions”: some

                                  hints and tips, Educational Research.

Tanzania Institute of Education,( 2005), Curriculum for ordinary level secondary education in

                                                             Tanzania. Dar es Salaam.

United Republic of Tanzania (2004). Secondary Education Development Plan (SEDP). Ministry

                                                          of Education and Culture: DSM