Students strive to get education, very interesting.

The Tanzanian educational system is based on the 7-4-2-3 system: 7 years of primary school, followed by four years of secondary school leading to Ordinary Level (0-level) exams in nine subjects, followed by two more years leading to the Advanced Level (A-level) exams in nine subjects, including General Studies. In the second year of secondary school, there is a national assessment examination which allows those who pass to continue to study for an additional two years. After those two years, students take the Certificate of Secondary Education Exam (CSEE), held in November; the results come out in March of the following year. Two years later, A-level exams are given. After the final year of secondary school - the thirteenth year - students can take the Advanced Certificate examination, which is recognized all over the world. On the average, a student can complete the Bachelor's degree in three years, although some majors require more time.


0-Levels: The Certificate of Secondary Education is awarded in four divisions to candidates who conform to entry requirements:

Division One: is awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject in civics, Kiswahili, foreign languages, social sciences or technology, mathematics, natural sciences, commercial studies or home economics. (2) pass with grades of A- C in at least four subjects; and (3) reach an aggregate of not more than 17 points in the candidate's seven best subjects.

Division Two: is awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject as listed above; (2) pass with grades of A-C in at least four subjects; and (3) reach an aggregate of not more than 21 points in the best seven subjects.
Division Three and Division Four. descending from the above standards.

Candidates are eligible to enter the fifth year of secondary school if they pass in at least five subjects with grades of A-C on the CSEE.


A-levels: The two-year high school course commences in July. The Advanced Certificate Examination (ACSE) is taken in May, and results come out in October. Applications for university are made immediately after the ACSE results come out.

The right to education is not well guaranteed in the Tanzanian constitution, rather it is treated as a privilege under Article II which requires members of community to strive on their own for better education and does not oblige the government to offer compulsory education to its people as a right.

To treat it as a privilege is a challenge, still the education sector faces many challenges.
As the quality of education continues to decreases since 2007, last year’s form four results was among the most discouraging results in Tanzania as only 6% of student passed the exams and 34% got division IV and the worst of it 60% got division 0.

Kamene Secondary school, located in Ilala, Dar es Salaam has been established 14 years ago and in their past year result they experienced one of worst that has ever occurred in their school. One student got division I, seven students got division II, 20 students got division III, 110 students got division IV and 31student failed compared to previous results.

This poor result was caused by different factors such as laziness of students, lack of support from parents, lack of trained teachers for new competence curriculum, and a lack of student motivation as well as student dropout rates and globalization.

For the effort to increase the performance of the students, teachers and other education stakeholders were introduced what we call Tuitions (Remedial) which are conducted mostly during the evening time when it is regular terms and full time when its holiday time.

The tuition system is not new but it was many years ago and most of the poor family tried their best to make sure they have some mney to give their children to go to tuition so the purpose of having extra knowledge and skills to solve examination problem and have opportunities to proceed with next level of education.

“My mother doesn’t have enough money to take me to private school, but she always find some money for me to afford to come here and get extra knowledge on how I can perform end exams and join advanced level. Here at Mchikichini (Kariakoo, Dar es Salaam) I pay 300 Tanzania shillings per period of one hour ($ 0.15) and I always here to study Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.”
…Student. Form IV.