Tambaza teachers flee over Form 6 national exam fiasco

Dar es Salaam. While other schools were celebrating success in this year’s Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education Examination, things were different at Tambaza High School in Dar es Salaam.

An air of sadness and disbelief engulfed the formerly top- performing school when The Citizen visited yesterday.

Tambaza was for many years among the best schools in Tanzania, but it has steadily declined, and is among the ten worst performers nationally this year. The results have shocked the school community, and this was confirmed by the head teacher yesterday. Groups of students and teachers were seen huddled together, discussing the fiasco in hushed tones.

The teachers, however, hurriedly walked away as this reporter approached them to get their views on the school’s poor performance.

The headmaster, Mr Hussein Mavumba, was found going through the results in his office. He described the school’s performance as “shocking and beyond belief”.

“It is too early to say anything but as the head of this school, it is frustrating. We are doing some scientific analysis to establish why this happened...where we have gone wrong so that we can chart our next course of action.

“I’m required to explain this to my seniors, so I’m currently busy preparing a report, but it’s not easy to believe what has happened,” Mr Mavumba said.

Speaking to this reporter on condition of anonymity, some students blamed the school’s poor performance on an acute shortage of science teachers.

“Here we take science combinations, and yet we don’t have science teachers. We don’t even have even laboratories and the necessary equipment,” said one of the students.

Other students said the results were demoralising.

“It is disappointing to see your school perform so badly, but we should take this as a challenge and see where we have gone wrong,” another student said.

Secret of Feza Boys success revealed

Fariji Msonsa, The Citizen Reporter

Dar es Salaam. Feza Boys’ High School authorities said yesterday the secret behind its good performance was ensuring their students concentrate on learning and nothing else.

The second master of the school, Mr Ibrahim Rashid, said: “We urge them to feel equal regardless of their social status and their family backgrounds -- whether they are rich or poor.”

Feza Boys’ High School is among schools that registered good results in this year’s Form Six national examination.

It took second position nationally from third place last year with a reputable improvement in its performance.

The school emerged tops in chemistry, biology, economics and history. In history, the school set a record by jumping from position 317 last year to first.

Mr Rashid also said: Providing the students with better learning environment and required facilities is vital for their achievement and attaining our common goal.”

Another secret behind the good performance, Mr Rashid said, was staff teamwork and their commitment to helping students.

He said the school obtains its teachers from within the country and Turkey, and they work tirelessly to assist the pupils whenever needed.

“We have committed teachers who are ready to support the pupils anytime. I can say their support is available for 24 hours a day,” said Mr Rashid.

He also attributed the success to the school management for its support in ensuring suitable learning environment and coming up with programmes that expose the students even to global issues.

He said his school sends the students to participate in international competitions while in other instances it hosts some.

On the other hand, parents’ influence plays a vital role in students’ performance, according to Mr Rashid.

He said, “The school works in collaboration with the parents to nurture the students and follow up on their class performance. We encourage parents to do that because they also have a key contribution in attaining our goal to quality education.”

When asked on what may be causing drastic fall of giant schools in their performances, he said, “In my view most private schools in the country focus on image building and recognition instead of sticking to the provision of quality education.

“The efforts for image building are short lived but providing quality education is a long run development.”

He added that, however, the case is different in public schools where there are several concerns including unresolved teachers’ grievances.