FALSE: 350 students have not dropped out from a Tanzanian school
An article by Muhabarishaji Media Group claiming that 350 students have dropped out of Marumba secondary school, which is managed by the Tunduru district council, is false.
According to the article, 350 out of 602 students who were meant to attend the school have dropped out due to pregnancy and absenteeism.
However, the office of the director of Tunduru District Council has refuted the claim ,after the office of the director of Tunduru District council in Ruvuma region researched the claim, they would like the public to understand, in a period of four years ie. 2016 to 2019 the 603 students were meant to join the school, 320 boys and 283 girls.
However, only 515 students were registered, meaning 88 did not join the school as was expected. Data from the Office of the Director of the Tunduru District Council shows from October 28, 2019 the school had a total of 345 students — 208 boys and 137 girls.
According to Tunduru council managing director Gasper Balyomi, only 170 students are missing due to different reasons. said,Tunduru council managing director Gasper Balyomi.
During the graduation ceremony the headmaster was quoted saying he was supposed to have 603, but 329 got registered. The current number of students is 253. This means 603- 253 is equal to 350 number of students missing as reported by the website .
However, Mr Balyomi, who is responsible for the management of the district council, denied the claim that 350 students from Murumba secondary school had dropped out.
A statement dated 30 October 2019 from the district council stated that over a period of four years, 170 students had dropped out from the original cohort of 515 that had been registered.
Of these, 20 students from Marumba Secondary School transferred to other schools, while 15 students dropped out of school after getting pregnant, and 63 students left school for other reasons. An additional 72 students were given a chance to repeat their studies after failing form two exams, but not all of them opted to repeat, with some joining vocational training colleges and private schools.
Therefore, the data shared by the District Council shows that the number of students who had either dropped out or transferred to other learning institutions was much smaller than the article by Muhabarishaji claimed.
PesaCheck has looked into the claim that 350 students have been suspended because of pregnancy and missing school in Marumba secondary school at Tunduma district and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
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This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Researcher Najma Juma, was edited by PesaCheck Deputy Editor Ann Ngengere and was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
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