A Comparative Analysis of Academic Performance of Diploma Nursing Students of Public, Private and Faith based Schools in Tanzania

As the current nursing practice increases concerns about students’ academic performance, there had been high rate of failure among diploma nursing students in their final examinations in Tanzania. This study aimed to make comparative analysis of academic performance of diploma nursing students of public, private and faith based schools. An ex-post facto research design was used in which 116 students were randomly selected from 1154 pre-service diploma nursing students, who sat for their final examination in July, 2013. A developed checklist form was used as research instrument and data gathered were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences 21 version (SPSS) computer software. The findings revealed a significant difference in entry qualifications among students from public, private and faith based nursing schools (ρ =0.000). A significant positive relationship between students’ entry qualifications and academic performance in nursing schools was found (r = 0.212, p =0.022). No significant difference in academic performance of students from public, private and faith based owned nursing schools was also found (ρ =0.059).