In January 2025, NECTA released the Form Two National Assessment results. The headlines focused on overall improvement — pass rates climbing from 27.73% to 30.08%. But buried in the data was a number that should have stopped everyone in their tracks.

81.1% of students failed Basic Mathematics.

Not struggled. Not underperformed. Failed. Grade F. Four out of every five students who sat for that exam walked away without demonstrating basic mathematical competency.

This isn’t an anomaly. It’s a pattern.

The Full Picture

Let’s look at what else the 2024 data revealed:

• 65.7% of students failed Chemistry
• 48.5% failed Engineering Science (up from 40.6% the previous year)
• Physics and Biology showed similar patterns of underperformance

These aren’t just exam statistics. These are the foundational subjects that determine whether a student can pursue medicine, engineering, technology, or any science-related field. They’re the gateway to the knowledge economy Tanzania’s Vision 2050 explicitly calls for.

And the gates are closed for most students.

The Infrastructure Gap

Why are students failing? The answers aren’t mysterious. They’re infrastructural.

70% of Tanzanian secondary schools lack functional science laboratories. Students learn chemistry without ever mixing compounds. They study biology without microscopes. They memorize physics formulas without ever seeing the principles demonstrated.

Education expert Grace Mwambene from the University of Dar es Salaam put it directly: “Most schools still use traditional ways of teaching, which don’t encourage students to think critically or solve problems. We need more practical sessions and modern equipment to make these subjects interesting.”

But equipment costs money. Labs require maintenance. Rural schools — where the majority of Tanzanian students learn — face teacher shortages on top of everything else. The student-to-teacher ratio in specialized subjects like Physics and Chemistry is, in Mwambene’s words, “alarming.”

The Pipeline Problem

Here’s where the math gets uncomfortable.

Tanzania’s Vision 2050 sets a target of 40% of graduates entering science-related fields. Currently, we’re at 18%. Less than half of where we need to be.

The same vision calls for 70% digital literacy by 2050. Current estimates put basic technological proficiency at around 34%. True digital fluency — coding, data analysis, computational thinking — is far lower.

Meanwhile, the students who do pursue STEM are struggling more, not less. The proportion of students combining Physics, Advanced Mathematics, and Computer Science who achieved Division One dropped from 62.12% in 2024 to 53.80% in 2025. An 8% decline in a single year.

We’re not closing the gap. We’re watching it widen.

What Actually Needs to Happen

The diagnosis is clear. The question is intervention.

Teacher training helps — the improvement in Basic Applied Mathematics pass rates (from 59% to 73% over two years) correlates directly with targeted teacher development programs. When educators learn new methods, students perform better. This isn’t complicated.

But training alone isn’t enough. Students need to interact with concepts, not just hear about them. They need laboratories, or something that can function like one. They need feedback on their work faster than the months it currently takes to return exam results. They need materials that meet them where they are — including in Swahili, which remains the language most students actually think in.

Digital platforms are showing what’s possible with 3D simulations and visual content. Partnerships like the KOICA-UNICEF initiative are building real labs in real schools. These efforts matter.

But they’re not at scale. Not yet.

The Urgency

2050 sounds far away. It’s not. Students entering Form One this year will be in their mid-thirties by then — theoretically in the prime of their professional lives, either building Tanzania’s knowledge economy or watching it remain a policy document.

The 81% who failed math this year? They’re not abstractions. They’re students who will make choices about their futures based on what they believe they’re capable of. Many will conclude — wrongly — that science isn’t for them.

Every year we don’t address this, we’re not just failing exams. We’re failing a generation.

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The data in this post draws from NECTA 2024 examination results and reporting by Daily News Tanzania and The Citizen.