Zanzibar students failure blamed on Necta

Zanzibar. Some secondary school teachers have accused the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (Necta) of being the root cause of Form Six failures on the Isles. They observed that Necta had for a long time not been fair to Zanzibar schools, noting that “the council habours a secret agenda against the achipelago”.

Al-Ihsan headmaster Abadallah Nassor said they were taken aback by the results as their Form Six students were doing well in class.

“We as teachers know the strengths and weaknesses of all our students. Given the standard of Form Six students we have this year, no one expected such failures from Zanzibar,” he said.

Given the situation, there were indications that the results were cooked to suit some interests, he charged. “We know our students well. They were performing well in exercises we were giving them. Examination questions were not different from what we had taught them. It is strange that the students, who were performing well in the tests have failed in their examinations,” he said, as he blamed Necta for introducing changes in the grading system without involving Zanzibar, noting that the changes could be one factor for the poor performance of Zanzibar students.

Ms Saida Abbass, a teacher at the same school, wondered why Necta did not involve Zanzibar before it changed the grading system if it at all had a good intention. “One can safely guess that there is something strange going on which is intended to sabotage Zanzibar,” she said.

Tumnekuja Secondary School teacher Said Abdulla said the newly introduced system was complicated and that it confused many students.

“Our students prepared their exams using the old system, but when they sat for the Form Six examinations, they were forced to use a new system, which they were not used to,” he said, adding: “We should also blame the minister responsible for Education here in Zanzibar for accepting everything without questioning.”

Mr Omar Wadi Omar, the headmaster of Jang’ombe Secondary School, said the students used the newly introduced system for the first time.