Mpanda — MPANDA District education authorities in Katavi region have outlawed enrolment of disqualified students in secondary schools, the practice found common in both public and private schools.

During interview, Mpanda District Education Office, Mr Venance Nyamwale said findings have revealed that school headmasters and headmistresses registered students irrespective of their pass mark, the move which was not only against the law but also denied the qualified ones the right to join secondary schools.

"Only the Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) is vested with the powers to issue a transfer permit to a student to move from one school to another. "There are reports that dishonest parents or guardians colluded with corrupt Heads of schools to enrol disqualified students contrary to the established procedures," DEO Nyamwale said.

He further warned the perpetrators insisting that the mandate that RAS is bestowed with should never be tampered with. Order by the district education office followed recent incident revelation of 44 students discovered to have joined ten government schools in the district while they had failed the primary level final national examinations.

As a result, the 44 students have been sent home while the Teachers' Services Department probes the ten headmasters implicated in the scam. It was further revealed that out of the number, nineteen were disqualified from sitting for this year's Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations (CSEE) after the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (Necta) cancelled their registration.