Ujengelele
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 14, 2008
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Half of Std 7 pupils 'illiterate' Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:55
By Subira Kaswaga
Despite the enormous advance in education made possible by investments worth trillions of shillings each year, the vast majority of Tanzania children leaving primary schools are not learning, the new research has revealed.
According to the results of the survey which were released in Dar es Salaam yesterday, it is estimated that one out of five shillings that the government gets, is allocated for education sector.
This money is used to improve learning facilities by building schools, increase the number of teachers and students enrolment, areas which have neglected quality of education offered.
The director of Uwezo Tanzania research institution which conducted the survey, Dr Grace Soko, revealed this yesterday in Dar es Salaam when presenting the annual learning assessment report.
The research, which was done in May involved 38 out of 133 districts, in which 30 villages were randomly selected and in each village all children aged 5 to 16 in 20 households were assessed.
The findings shows that, half the children who complete primary school cannot read in English hence English was found to be the hardest subject for children.
It is expected that all children in standard three should be able to read the standard two story level but the survey established that less than one in 10 (7.7 percent) can do that.
The findings also indicate that many children reach standard seven without any English skill. Also, by the time they complete standard seven half of all children (49.1 percent) still cannot read a standard two level English story.
This means that majority of children who enter secondary schools are unable to read in the English language, which is the medium of instruction in secondary school, reads part of the report.
Though Kiswahili is the national language widely spoken across the country, the research found out that a large number of children were not able to read it fluently. One in five primary school leavers cannot read standard two level Kiswahili.
It has also been shows that urban based children perform better than rural based children. Children in urban areas score between seven and 10 points higher than children in rural areas in all subjects.
Prof Suleman Sumra, the head of Uwezo-Tanzania, said this was due to the fact that most parents in urban areas have gone to school compared to those in rural areas.
There is huge connection between literate parents and children performance, many urban parents are educated hence it become very easier for them to make follow up on their children performance at school compared to those in rural who are mostly illiterate, said Prof Sumra.
He also noted that poor resources including the absence of electricity, shortage of books, water problems and poor learning environment have been the core cause for rural children to perform poorly.
In gender perspective, the research reveals that girls perform better than boys. In all subjects tested 43.5 percent of girls were able to read at the story level two in Kiswahili as compared to 40.7 percent of all boys.
But the research established that many primary school pupils lack basic competencies in both languages and mathematics and no part of the report explain the reason why girls perform better than boys.
Commenting on the data, education researcher Mr Rakesh Rajan said it was hard for Tanzania to overcome the shortage of science experts if majority of standard seven leavers cannot multiply standard two level mathematics.
Ms Marsha Qorro, one of the participants, said the use of both two language at once in primary education may be the cause of the problems since it confuse children.
Ms Neema George said curriculum was also to blame as it is copied from other countries and it has been changing from time to time thus confusing scholars
By Subira Kaswaga
Despite the enormous advance in education made possible by investments worth trillions of shillings each year, the vast majority of Tanzania children leaving primary schools are not learning, the new research has revealed.
According to the results of the survey which were released in Dar es Salaam yesterday, it is estimated that one out of five shillings that the government gets, is allocated for education sector.
This money is used to improve learning facilities by building schools, increase the number of teachers and students enrolment, areas which have neglected quality of education offered.
The director of Uwezo Tanzania research institution which conducted the survey, Dr Grace Soko, revealed this yesterday in Dar es Salaam when presenting the annual learning assessment report.
The research, which was done in May involved 38 out of 133 districts, in which 30 villages were randomly selected and in each village all children aged 5 to 16 in 20 households were assessed.
The findings shows that, half the children who complete primary school cannot read in English hence English was found to be the hardest subject for children.
It is expected that all children in standard three should be able to read the standard two story level but the survey established that less than one in 10 (7.7 percent) can do that.
The findings also indicate that many children reach standard seven without any English skill. Also, by the time they complete standard seven half of all children (49.1 percent) still cannot read a standard two level English story.
This means that majority of children who enter secondary schools are unable to read in the English language, which is the medium of instruction in secondary school, reads part of the report.
Though Kiswahili is the national language widely spoken across the country, the research found out that a large number of children were not able to read it fluently. One in five primary school leavers cannot read standard two level Kiswahili.
It has also been shows that urban based children perform better than rural based children. Children in urban areas score between seven and 10 points higher than children in rural areas in all subjects.
Prof Suleman Sumra, the head of Uwezo-Tanzania, said this was due to the fact that most parents in urban areas have gone to school compared to those in rural areas.
There is huge connection between literate parents and children performance, many urban parents are educated hence it become very easier for them to make follow up on their children performance at school compared to those in rural who are mostly illiterate, said Prof Sumra.
He also noted that poor resources including the absence of electricity, shortage of books, water problems and poor learning environment have been the core cause for rural children to perform poorly.
In gender perspective, the research reveals that girls perform better than boys. In all subjects tested 43.5 percent of girls were able to read at the story level two in Kiswahili as compared to 40.7 percent of all boys.
But the research established that many primary school pupils lack basic competencies in both languages and mathematics and no part of the report explain the reason why girls perform better than boys.
Commenting on the data, education researcher Mr Rakesh Rajan said it was hard for Tanzania to overcome the shortage of science experts if majority of standard seven leavers cannot multiply standard two level mathematics.
Ms Marsha Qorro, one of the participants, said the use of both two language at once in primary education may be the cause of the problems since it confuse children.
Ms Neema George said curriculum was also to blame as it is copied from other countries and it has been changing from time to time thus confusing scholars
