The death toll in Saturday's school bus crash in Karatu township in the Arusha region rose to 36 on Sunday after three more pupils succumbed to their injuries, a hospital source confirmed.
Francis Costa, a morgue attendant at the Arusha Regional Referral Hospital, Mount Meru, confirmed receiving 36 bodies from the deadly accident.
Two teachers and the bus driver were also killed in the crash in the Rhotia area, about 150 kilometers (92 miles) northeast of the popular tourist city of Arusha.
The headmaster of the Lucky Vincent Primary School, Ephraim Jackson told Anadolu Agency in a phone interview that three pupils were still being treated at the hospital, adding the school would remain closed for seven days to mourn the deaths.
Arusha Regional Commissioner Mrisho Gambo told Anadolu Agency that Vice President Ms Samia Suluhu Hasaan would on Monday attend a "national" funeral service to pay the last respect to the 33 pupils, their teachers and the bus driver who died in the tragedy.
"The function will take place at the Sheikh Amri Abeid stadium," Gambo said urging the public to stay calm in this difficult period.
The funeral was initially set to take place on Sunday, but was postponed till Monday to accommodate the vice president's participation.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta sent a message of condolences to his Tanzanian counterpart, John Magufuli, during a public political rally where he asked for a one-minute silence for the victims.
A Mwanza-based parent, Stephen Maggesa, who lost his son Elias in the accident, said it was difficult to come to terms with the reality of losing a child.
"I received a call from a brother in Arusha informing the death of my son. It's difficult to bear this," the parent said in tears at his home in the northwestern city.
Saturday's crash is the latest in Tanzania that has been plagued by accidents that have claimed the lives of at least 85 students in recent decades.
At least 40 students were burned alive in 1994 as they slept in a dormitory at the Shauritanga Secondary School in the Kilimanjaro region.
Fifteen years later, in 2009, 12 students died in a fire at the Idodi Secondary School in Iringa.
