Dar pupil tops girls in Standard 7 exam
What you need to know:
The top girl pupil in the National Standard Seven Examination is the firstborn in a family of two and, according to her mother, they expected she would pass with flying colours
Dar es Salaam. It was great joy yesterday as the family of Justina Gerald and her Tusiime Primary School received the news that she was the top-most girl countrywide while she took the fourth position overral in this year’s Standard Seven National Examination.
Justina, 11, is also the only girl on the Top 10 pupils’ list. She is the firstborn in a family of two and her mother Edna Majaliwa said they knew she would pass with flying colours, but never thought she would be the leading female candidate.
“I’m delighted. Justina always questions the relevance of whatever she is about to do. She is curious about everything, which we always find to be a good sign and her performance has proved what she expresses and what we believed,” she explained.
Ms Majaliwa, who is also a paediatrician at Muhimbili National Hospital, added that Justina’s aunt often teased her that one day she would excel, which they believe motivated her to work harder.
Tusiime Primary headmaster Philibert Simon said Justina always went beyond what was taught in class and asked questions on academic issues she didn’t understand.
Earlier on the day, the National Examinations Council of Tanzania announced that 555,291 out of 789,479 candidates, who sat the 2016 Standard Seven National Examination had passed.
This is equivalent to 70.3 per cent pass rate, which is 2.52 per cent higher than the 2015 results. A total of 283,751 of them are girls, while 271,540 are boys.
Performance in science subjects has improved by 4 per cent compared to last year’s. Performance in Kiswahili, English and Mathematics has dropped by between 0.39 and 12.51 per cent, according to Necta executive secretary, Dr Charles Msonde.
The best candidate in the national exam is Japhet Stephano from Kwema Primary School in Shinyanga. His classmates Jamal Athuman and Enock Bundala emerged second and third respectively.
Justine Gerald and Shabani Mavunde from Tusiime Primary School in Dar es Salaam became the fourth and fifth best pupils respectively. Others with their positions in brackets include Jacob Wagine (6), Isaac John Isaac (7), Daniel Kitundu (8), Benjamin Shabu (9) all from Kwema Primary School and Azad Ayatullah (10) from Kaizirege Primary school from Kagera. The list of Top 10 schools with their regions in brackets in descending order include, Kwema (Shinyanga), Rocken Hill Primary (Shinyanga), Mugini (Mwanza), Fountain of Joy (Dar es Salaam), Tusiime (Dar es Salaam), Mudio Islamic (Kilimanjaro), Atlas (Dar es Salaam), St Achileus (Kagera), Gift Skillfull (Dar es Salaam) and Carmel (Morogoro).
