Zanzibar reveals secret behind Form Six exam success

Dar es Salaam. The performance of schools in Zanzibar this year, compared to previous years, in the Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations (ACSEE) results has created a new image to some education stakeholders, with the ministry of Education and Vocational Training – Zanzibar revealing the secret behind the success.

According to the ACSEE results trend, some schools in Zanzibar have been faring poorly when looking at the number of students getting Grade IV and 0, making the latter’s dreams end up on the road.

However, this year’s results have attracted the attention of many due to the way many schools have turned the tides after their students previously found themselves in poor grades (IV and 0) and now most of the group will be joining universities in the next academic year.

The National Examinations Council of Tanzania (Necta) announced the results of the ACSEE on Tuesday stating that the pass rate had increased this year to 99.87 percent, with girls’ pass rate slightly higher than that of boys by 0.08 percent.

The council’s acting executive secretary, Mr  Athumani Amas, said this year’s performance had risen slightly by 0.25 percent from 99.62 percent last year. He noted that 93, 136 candidates (98.97 percent) passed the examination with Divisions I, II and III.

Although the performance has overall increased nationally this year, The Citizen’s eye has not been slow to see a major revolution in this year’s results in Zanzibar compared to previous years, a situation that has also attracted the attention of some of the education professionals in the country.

For instance, Mpendae Secondary School of Mjini Magharibi, which in the years 2020 and 2021 ACSEE found itself with 42 students having Division IV and 37 with Division 0, in 2021 decreased to 14 students with Division IV and three with Division 0, respectively.

This year (2022), the school has not been able to produce a single student with the last two divisions, namely (Division IV and 0) signaling a 100 percent improvement.

Tumekuja Secondary School of Mjini Magharibi is one of the 31 government secondary schools in Zanzibar which has also shown good performance by reducing the number of students who failed the ACSEE exams.

In the 2020 results, the school recorded about 30 students with Division IV and 15 with Division 0. In the following year’s exam, 2021, the school reduced the number of students who earned Division IV to 21 while those who obtained Division 0 were only eight.

However, in the year 2022 it managed to further reduce the number of students with Division IV to five and those who obtained Division 0 to only two.

One of the best performing schools this year in terms of improvement in the isles is Kiembesamaki ‘A’ Islamic Secondary School which is also from Mjini Magharibi where no student from this school has got Division IV and 0 this year. In 2020 the number of students in Division IV was 34 and Division 0 was 23. In 2021 this school was able to completely eliminate Division 0 and remain with nine students who got Division IV.

This school has in 2022 eliminated all Division IV and 0, indicating how it has been striving to reduce those lower grades that indicate student failure.

Another school that The Citizen uses to demonstrate the quality of Advance education among the many that have continued to do well over recent years in the isles is Maarif Secondary School located in South Unguja.

This school had 11 students with Division IV and three with Division 0 in 2020 results, this year it has not had any students with those final marks, with two students who obtained Division IV in 2021 with no one getting Division 0.

The director of the Zanzibar Secondary Education Department, Mr Asya Iddi Issa, said the total number of Form Five and Six secondary schools was 44, of which 31 were government and 13 private.

Speaking to The Citizen in his office about the good results in ACSEE this year in the isles, Mr Issa said it was due to the strong cooperation of various groups.

“These achievements have not been achieved by one person, starting with the students themselves, teachers, school committees, the media, various stakeholders and the ministry of Education and Vocational Training,” he said.

Another factor, he noted, was the promotion of learning by various stakeholders while the government improved the learning and teaching environment by placing books and other essential materials needed in schools.

However, he said the move was a start towards greater success in the future so they do not boast more instead, he used the opportunity to urge education stakeholders, parents and students to continue cooperating with the government and teachers to improve education services on the island.

Mr Thomas Jabir, an education consultant in Dar es Salaam believes Zanzibar has proved many people wrong following the poor trend in performance for many years in Primary, O-level and A-level national examinations.