The Minister for Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Prof Joyce Ndalichako
Speaking to ‘The Guardian’ yesterday, they explained that the GPA
grading system which the newly appointed minister had scrapped off was
confusing and ‘strange’ because Tanzania was the only country in its
region to have the system in place.
The Tanzania Non-Government Schools and Colleges Organization
(Tamongosco) said the minister did well to do away with the grading
system and expressed hope that more reforms would be in place to make
Tanzanian educational system effective and competitive.
The Tamongosco chairman, Mrinde Msava said the GPA system which
was adapted by National Examination Council (NECTA) was lowering the
education sector in the country as the system was complicated in grading
examination results.
The “GPA system was incorrect as it made a who candidate who had failed to appear to have passed,” he noted.
The chairman detailed that the system was also hindering education
competition among Tanzanian candidates and those from neighbouring
countries including Kenya and Uganda.
“The system was making candidates unable to withstand competition
in labour markets as examination results were did not match with
knowledge and skills of students,” he stressed.
He added that “We had requested the government to delete the
system due to its confusion to students and parents as well, thanks to
President John Pombe Magufuli for appointing a minister who knew the
worth of quality education,” he said.
According to them, the system was worsening the education sector.
He said if the government wanted to compete internationally, it
should find better methods which would enhance education quality in the
country by involving all stakeholders.
The heads of private schools chairman, Fidelisi Wenda said they had
been receiving complaints from parents about the GPA as majority of
them were unable to rank their children’s results.
“The system was complicated and was confusing parents due to the
fact that it was not very clear to know exactly the level of
performance,” said Wenda.
He said the systemwas only useful in universities and colleges but not for secondary education.
The research manager and policy analyst at HakiElimu, Godfrey
Bonaventura said the decision by the minister was likely to improve the
standard of education sector in the country.
The manager pointed out that in the three years, for decades,
politicians had done intermittent changes in the sector which were not
productive.
Boniventura said for instance in the three years, there were more than five changes in the same sector.
“Intermittent changes in the education standards made by
politicians have detrimental effects to the future performance of
students. The decision to suspend GPA is accepted with two hands,” he
said.
He said that the government must deal with standards and not
politics, adding that even the decision to use GPA system was
political influence.
He noted that with GPA system, government was preparing to register graduates with no skills and knowledge.
According to him, the government must set high standards in order to have experts who can compete in the labour market.
For her part, the Tanzania Education Network (Ten-Met) Coordinator,
Cathleen Sekwao said GPA system was an obstacle to quality education.
.
She said the government was generating a batch of students that could not compete in regionally and international.
“With GPA system we were expecting to have a number of students
with little skills or no knowledge in the sphere of services,” she
warned.
On August 2014, (NECTA) introduced GPA system to evaluate Form Four and Form Six students.
From the time the council was established in 1973 to 2013, it has
all along used the Total Grading System (division) and not the Grade
Point Average system.
The NECTA executive director, Dr Charles Msonde said then that,
under GPA system the level of pass marks for Forms Four and Six was as
follow: A=1, B+=2, B=3, c=4,D=5, E=6 and F=7.
Under this system therefore pass grades were arranged as follows:
Division I, II III and IV, while Division I-III defines the points
scored by the examinee, Division IV is usually derived by scoring at
least two Ds or a C in an entire examination.
He said with the GPA system, the examinee’s scored points are added
together and divided by the number of subjects and they are graded in
accordance with the pass average pass mark.
Under this system, A=5, B+=4, B=3, C=, D-1, E=0.5 and F=0, where
the average score for Distinction for Form Four is 3.6-5 points, while
for Form Six it is 3.7-5. As for the Merit grade, the score is 2.6-3.5
for Form Four and 3.0-3.6 for Form Six.
Credit is 1.6-2.5 for Form Four and 01.7-2.9 for Form Six while
Pass is 0.3-1.5 for Form IV to 0.7-1.6 for Form Six. Fail is 0.0-0.2 for
Form IV and 0.0-0.6 for Form Six.
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