Standard Seven pass rate rises

DAR ES SALAAM: THE overall pass rate of the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) has this year increased by 0.93 per cent compared to last year, marking continued improvement in primary education performance across the country.

The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) released the 2025 results yesterday, revealing notable progress in both the overall pass rate and the quality of performance among candidates.

Announcing the results in Dar es Salaam, NECTA Executive Secretary, Prof Said Mohamed, said a total of 937,581 out of 1,146,164 pupils who sat for the examinations, equivalent to 81.80 per cent, passed with grades A, B and C.

This represents an increase from 80.87 per cent recorded in 2024. Prof Mohamed explained that 81.21 percent of girls (508,477) passed and 82.51 per cent of boys (429,104) passed.

He said that in 2024, 80.05 per cent of girls and 81.85 per cent of boys passed, meaning the pass rate for girls rose by 1.16 per cent and for boys by 0.66 per cent.

“Regarding the quality of performance, 422,923 candidates, equivalent to 36.90 per cent, obtained grades A and B, representing an increase of 1.07 per cent compared to 2024,” he said.

He added that the quality of performance among girls increased by 0.70 per cent, reaching 33.71 per cent in 2025 compared to 33.01 per cent in 2024.

This improvement was driven by increases of 0.39 per cent in grade A and 0.31 per cent in grade B.

“For boys, the quality of performance rose by 1.52 per cent to 40.73 per cent, compared to 39.21 per cent in 2024. The increase was contributed by improvement in grade A by 0.78 per cent and grade B by 0.74 per cent,” he noted.

Prof Mohamed further revealed that out of 19,436 schools with PSLE 2025 results, 17,727 schools, equivalent to 91.21 per cent, recorded an average grade of A–C.

However, the council cancelled results for 31 candidates for cheating and seven others for writing abusive language in their scripts.

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These actions were taken in accordance with section 30(2) (b) of the 2016 Examination Regulations and section 5(2) (i) and (j) of the NECTA Act, Chapter 107.

In a related development, Prof Mohamed announced that 898,755 registered can didates are expected to sit for the Form Two National Assessment (FTNA) from November 10 to 20 this year in mainland Tanzania.

Of these, 889,266 are school candidates and 9,489 are private candidates.

Among the school candidates, 396,383 are boys (44.57 per cent) and 492,883 are girls (55.43 per cent).

He said 2,267 students will sit for vocational subjects for the first time under the 2014 Education and Training Policy (2023 Edition) and the revised curriculum, while 886,999 students will sit under the old curriculum.

He added that 4,390 Form Two candidates with special needs have registered, 1,674 with low vision, 144 with vision impairment, 999 with hearing impairment, 1,374 with physical impairment and 199 with intellectual impairment.

For private candidates, 4,454 are boys (46.94 per cent) and 5,035 are girls (53.06 per cent).

The national assessments will be conducted in 6,238 secondary schools across mainland Tanzania.