Causes Of Mass Failure Of Students In Zanzibar Secondary Schools Between 2002-2012: A Case Of Mkoani District- Pemba

ABSTRACT

The study‟s aim was to find out the causes of mass failure of Zanzibar O‟level examination for the period of 10 years from 2002-2012. The study was guided by three tasks. First, to find out the causes of mass failure in Zanzibar secondary schools from 2002 – 2012, Secondly, to examine the impact of having secondary school in every constituency in Zanzibar, finally, to suggest the possible ways of solving the problem of massive failure. The sample of the study constituted 116 respondents, including education officers, heads of schools, parents, form four teachers and students. The methods used for data collection involved interviews, questionnaires and the focus group discussion. Data were collected throughout Mkoani District from 15 government secondary schools and were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The researcher used simple random sampling procedures in which each unit of the population had a known, equal, non- zero probability of being included in the sample. The Findings have revealed that to a large extent the mass failure in Zanzibar secondary schools was caused by poor organization and implementation of the Ministry policy of disseminating secondary schools in Zanzibar. This led to shortage of teachers, unqualified secondary students, shortage of teaching and learning resources, increasing in number of part-time teachers, unemployment, mass cheating, and shortage of schools laboratories. Other were impact of globalization, Low salaries and language barrier. The research shall be used as a reference for overcoming the problem of mass failure in Zanzibar secondary schools.