Changes in Education are happening
all over the world and not for the best. In Tanzania, Africa the government has
decided to change the grading scales for students on two secondary school
exams. This results from poor scores from the students on these exams. The sad but true statistics from 2012 show
that two out of three students failed the Tanzanian form four exams. This has
caused many uproars from people in Tanzania many think this will cause the
students to be lazy, they will not be challenged and will not work hard because
they don’t have to. This is the new grading scale, students scoring 75-100
points would earn an A, 60-74 a B+, 50-59 a B, 40-49 a C, and 30-39 a D. Also
there has been an introduction of the grade E which is a score 20-29 points. F is still a failing grade of 19 points or
lower. The grading scale before allowed
an A at 81 or higher, 60 to 80 is a B and 60 is C. The grading scale now isn’t
allowing for students to get the education they need. There are many arguments
against this new grading scale. They are saying there are ways to fix this is
by paying the teachers more and providing books to the students. It was
mentioned that that the education system should be under the state instead of
government ran. Many are saying that Tanzania needs to go back when it was just
state ran.
How is
this creating problems for Tanzania? Lowering the standards for grading is not
allowing them to compete internationally. Also, the children who are being
passed along because of the new grading scale may not be truly prepared for the
next grade. The children who can pass are not being academically challenged,
passing is too easy. Mentioned in the article is it will cause laziness this is
true many of those who think it’s too easy will not try as hard. The children
here are obviously not receiving a good education. How do you think this
effects them when they move to colleges/universities? Will they be able to
pass? Did their former schooling prepare them properly? All of these are good
questions but how will Tanzania avoid these problems. The main thing is that
even the teachers that are teaching many of the children are not prepared well
for teaching the children, underpaid and not given enough books in order to
educate the great number of children in their classroom. Greater payment would
give teachers incentive to do their jobs and take them more seriously. Also,
maybe the teachers need a training program to ensure that they are educating
the children properly. I feel like the government is not trying to fix the
problems but change the grading system in order to avoid the issue. The
children are failing because they aren’t being prepared for these exams
properly and the teachers are not doing their job.
Name: Sarah Vestrat
Date: 11/4/2013
Time: 10:25
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