How to consistently produce top performers in our schools

People become what they repeatedly do, so said the American philosopher Will Durant. Excellence then, he observed, is not an act, but a habit.

Having reviewed the latest national Form Four examination results, it is clear that something is very wrong. Simply put, it is impossible to attain failure of that magnitude accidentally.

It starts with the systematic lowering of people’s expectations. That’s why whenever results come out people never ask, “How can the bottom schools perform so poorly?” Instead, it is the top schools which are put in the spotlight: how can they get all those A’s? But it is the earlier question that matters most, leading to contemplating whether those schools should remain open or not. They should not, in my opinion.

So, it is important for attitudes to be changed. Expectation, they say, is the mother of manifestation. It is good to admit that what the nation has experienced is nothing short of tragic – and that this shameful cycle must end with us today. Ordinary folk need to know that academic excellence is not the preserve of the mighty and powerful, but it is also for mortals such as them too.

There are a number of things which the government can do as a matter or urgency to improve performance without stretching its budget

Firstly, to set and clearly communicate to the public its performance targets. You cannot miss a target that you don’t have. Moreover, if what we are experiencing is part of the targets that were set earlier, the people who did that work should be retired. They are a part of the problem.

Speaking of targets, I think that increasing A’s and B’s from eight percent in 2021 to 30 percent in 2025, for example, is a tough, but entirely achievable task. This will quadruple the number of candidates getting A’s and B’s from 25,000 in 2021 to more than 100,000 in 2025.

Secondly, to select and invest in some strategic number of schools, say about 15 schools in every region, thus over 400 schools nationwide, based on demand, which will be earmarked for highly improved performance.

Tanzania has about 5,100 secondary schools, where roughly three quarters are public schools and the rest private. These schools enrol over two million students, which lead to about 500,000 candidates annually. Given these numbers, it is not practical to address this issue collectively. Indeed, it may be argued that it is the focus on quantity rather than quality that has brought the nation to where it is today. To produce high performing candidates, the focus must now shift to quality.

There are many schools whose performances are generally well below their true potential. The school that I attended in the 1990s – Arusha Secondary School – is a very good example.

Back in those days, there were few such schools around – rich history, at the city centre, decent environment and a healthy number of capable teachers. The school used to receive some of the best performing students from primary schools across the district. Given the quality of some of those students, you would expect them to get Division One anyway – and they did. Even so, in our final year, only 12 students got Division One out of 250 students! That means, despite its strategic advantages, the school added no value to the students whatsoever. In fact, quite the opposite happened – there were many decent candidates who underachieved after those four years.

In 2021, 348 candidates sat the national examination, but only 18 got Division One. More than two decades had passed – same story.

There are many Arusha Secondary Schools out there. These are schools which are potentially capable of producing 100 division ones or more, but no one has ever demanded any performance from them. But creating an extra 30,000 to 50,000 division ones from this group may be the catalyst to attain the national goal.

Thirdly, to achieve that, it is advisable to create a department in the relevant ministry to manage those schools directly. The department will set clear performance goals for every school, and if they are not met, personnel should be changed swiftly. The department will also provide attractive incentives for teachers, which will be linked to performance. If not, more competitive teachers will replace them. Finally, the scheme may include private schools.

This strategy is not new. Similar models exist in other sectors, especially health. In education, the closest thing is the “special schools” scheme, which has become majorly pointless because, one, the only thing that is special about those schools is the students who join them; two, those who join would have performed equally well elsewhere, and, three, there are too few such schools. The proposed model puts the responsibility for excellence in the hands of teachers, not students – as it should be.

Fourthly, competition should be embraced. There have been suggestions that school rankings should be scrapped. It is difficult to understand what the idea is. Is masking ever a solution to mediocrity? What next? Removing exams altogether? Again, to paraphrase Durant, excellence is not accidental. All candidates scoring A’s should be rewarded so highly that others would wish to emulate them. I suggest two benefits – international scholarships and jobs in the government. Automatically.

Success is a product of stories people tell themselves. If Tanzanians stop telling themselves stories of mediocrity, they will start to believe that outstanding performance is not unusual, and that will become a norm.

The nation will change as a result.