UTAFITI [New Series] Special Issue, Vol. 4, 1998-2001:207-219 Socio-cultural Factors and Tanzanian Primary School Students ' Achievements and School Experience

We investigated how Tanzanian primary school students ' school experience varied according to school performance in subjects such as mathematics and Kiswahili) and several sociocultural factors like parental educational level, gender, age, religion, and home language. A representative sample was collected from urban and rural schools in Morogoro region. 545 students (254 boys and 291 girls) from Std 1II through VII responded to a questionnaire in Kiswahili. The findings showed that high achieving students experienced the classroom atmosphere more positively and felt less social anxiety than low achievers. Use of Kiswahili at home was related with positive school experience in the urban sample and related with less use of native tongue in the rural group. Educational level of the parents was not correlated with their childrens achievements. Unlike the lowly educated parents, more highly educated parents had placed their children in higher performing schools (according to the Primary School Leaving Examination). Children in the urban higher performing schools experienced school more positively than in the lower performing urban school