Exploration of factors that hinder and facilitate best performance in Primary School Leaving Examinations in Tanzania: lessons from poor and best performing regions

The education sector in Tanzania is experiencing poor academic performance including poor children’s PSLE results across regions. Some regions, however, outperform other regions in PSLE performance while others lag behind consistently. We know little about why some regions and schools in Tanzania consistently perform well or poorly. In this regard, HakiElimu designed a study to explore why some regions, districts and schools repeatedly perform better in PSLE while others repeatedly perform poorly, and then suggest ways to improve the situation in Tanzania. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: 1) To explore whether there are specific factors “not shared factors” that make some regions perform poorly while others perform better in PSLE. 2) Establish whether geographical location or regional disparity is a considerable factor for children performance in PSLE in Tanzania. 3) Compare and contrast performance factors among the poor performing and best performing regions in Tanzania in the last five to ten years.