National Exams...Or, "Proof Our Students Are Awesome"

Standard Seven, or 7^th Grade, marks the end of primary school in Tanzania, and it is the year all students take a national exam. Similar to le bac, it is a comprehensive exam that determines a students’ future education options. Only the students who score in the top 10% can attend government secondary schools. Because our school is private, Joseph and Mary students would be able to continue with their studies in our secondary school regardless of where they score, but we still hope they do well on the test, both for them and as confirmation our school is teaching them well.

We got the results back last month. All our students passed…and then some.

I wish you could have been in the JBFC dining hall to hear the ear-piercing screams and see the jumping/hugging/crying celebration when the girls heard they had all passed. Of the 22 students who took Standard Seven exams this year, ten live on JBFC’s campus.

It was a surreal moment to look at the list of the top students in the county and recognize almost every name in the first twenty. WE ROCK!

Based on our students’ scores, Joseph and Mary School was ranked among private schools…

1^st in our county

3^rd in our district of 201 schools

7^th in our region of approximately 10,000 schools

64^th IN THE COUNTRY OF TANZANIA.

All this in our second year as a school! These results do not compare us to government schools in Tanzania, but it’s safe to say private schools here will routinely out-perform their public counterparts.

We are so proud of our students and the teachers who have prepared them so well.

GOOD, BETTER, BEST! Well done, Joseph and Mary School!