Mercy for ‘exam cheats’
…More than 2,000 cleared to resit
A TOTAL of 2,192 Standard Seven pupils whose results were annulled for allegedly cheating, have now been given a second chance to demonstrate their ability after the National Examinations Council (NEC) granted them an opportunity to re-sit for exams.
The NEC on Saturday announced that it has considered concerns from parents and education stakeholders following the cancellation of results of those pupils, hence, they would re-do the 2022 Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) exams on December 21st and 22nd this year.
Acting NECTA’s Executive Secretary, Mr Athumani Amasi, told journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam that following the PSLE results announcement, the Council continued to receive complaints from different stakeholders of the education sector, alleging that school managements, teachers, and invigilators schemed and executed the cheatings.
Contrary to the previous plan, the 2,192 pupils who represent 0.16 per cent of the 1,350,881 candidates, will now take the exams on December 21st and 22nd this year, rather than doing the exams next year as private candidates.
“Stakeholders, parents, and guardians of candidates whose results were cancelled have complained that, given the candidates’ age, they could not refuse the examination answers given to them by their teachers or school administrators,” he said.
He added: “the council has considered the opinions and found them to be fundamental, so it has decided to give all candidates the opportunity to retake the examination as soon as possible rather than waiting until next year,”
PSLE was held on October 5th and 6th this year and the results were announced on December 1st , 2022.
At least 79.62 per cent of candidates, who sat for this year’s PSLE passed.
This represents a total of 1,073,402 candidates out of 1,348,073 who sat for the PSLE this year, which among the successful candidates were 558,825 girls (78.91 per cent) and 514,577 boys (80.41 per cent).
In 2021, the successful candidates were 907,802 equal to 81.97 per cent.
Thus, statistically, there is a 2.35 per cent decrease in performance even though the number of successful candidates has increased by 165,600 (18.24 per cent) compared to the year 2021, according to NECTA.
This year, a total of 1,384,186 primary school candidates were registered to take the exam, including 723,027 girls, equal to 52.23 per cent, and 661,159 boys, equal to 47.77 per cent. 4,221 candidates, or 0. 30 per cent, had special needs.
A total of 1,350,881 candidates (97.59 per cent) of those who registered took the exam. Among them, girls were 709,556 (98.14 per cent) and boys were 641,325 (97.00 per cent). 33,305 candidates, equal to 2.41 per cent, did not take the exam due to various reasons, including absenteeism and illness, of which 13,471 were girls and 19,834 were boys.
NECTA also suspended 24 examination centres, equivalent to 0.13 per cent of the 17,935 centres nationwide, on the grounds of planning and facilitating cheating during the examination.
