Tanzania, Sept. 11 -- Dar es Salaam. The seven-year primary education journey for 1,168,649 pupils culminates on Thursday with the national assessment examination, though more than 500,000 pupils who enrolled in Standard One in 2020 are missing.

According to the Statistical Abstract Report 2021 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 1,707,000 pupils, 854,000 boys and 853,000 girls, began Standard One in 2020.

Comparing those intake figures with the candidates sitting the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) on Thursday, 538,351 pupils, roughly 31.5 percent, are unaccounted for.

However, education experts clarify that this discrepancy does not equate solely to dropouts.

Over a seven-year cycle, cohort variations stem from tra...