The Primary School Leaving Examination (Tanzania) (PSLE) is a primary education examination that is done by Standard 7 students (7th grade) across Tanzania and serves as the secondary school entrance exam.
The exams are usually administered between late June to early or mid-August and are managed by the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA).
[1] Critiques of the PSLE include the inability to reflect the abilities of students often found with examinations, with a particular twist given Tanzania's rising primary attendance and graduation rates:[2] "In its current form [PSLE] is an unsuitable vehicle for the examination of candidates who have been educated in a competency based curriculum.
This challenge is complicated by the fact that if retention is improved, quite soon a full range of pupil ability will be represented in the final year of primary school and will be need[ed] to have an examination which is capable of measuring the abilities of that full range.
"[3]Further, the PSLE is conducted in English, which provides significant institutional barriers to Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students in a country where between 120 and 164 languages are spoken,[4] the lone national language is Kiswahili, and English integration in Tanzanian daily life has been far less successful[4] than in other former British colonies in East Africa, like Kenya.