Case Study Segment (CSS) On Primary Education in Tanzania

Case Study Segment (CSS) On Primary Education in Tanzania

Issack Albert

School of Rural Management, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT). Patia, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.803342S

Received: 22 September 2024; Revised: 05 October 2024; Accepted: 09 October 2024; Published: 08 November 2024

ABSTRACT

Unlike those educational policies implemented before, Tanzania Education and training policies of 1995 and 2014 addressed the issues of education quality and access but the implementation of these two addressed issues still a big challenge to all policies due to the fact that, quality education depends on many variables such as the number of students enrolled, availability of competent teachers, availability of quality infrastructures, and  teaching resources. According to Aina O et al..(2023) as cited to Scheerens, Luyten [20] education quality model consists of four components namely: contexts such as education’s demographic, social and economic contexts, the second component is input which includes financial and human resources, third component is process which contains access, participation and progression, he transition from school to work, the learning environment, and the organization of school, the fourth component is output /outcomes which imply the achievement of labor-market outcomes. However in Tanzania context the government and private sector train teachers at different levels from early education to higher education then the trained and qualified teachers recruited to public or private schools yearly, but the number of teachers recruited yearly is not big enough to accommodate the number of enrolled students particularly in schools located in rural areas which has very poor infrastructures, therefore many teachers don’t prefer to teach in those schools and eventually most of the schools allocated in rural areas have shortage of teachers as well as poor academic performance. On the other hand, teachers inservice discouraged to advance their knowledge owing to the fact that when teacher take study leave he/she isn’t eligible  to get promotion,similarly, when teacher finish the studies and get recategorization the system doesn’t allow promotion up to four years, this kills teachers motivation to advance academically and eventually kills education quality,if education system promotes teachers to advance their knowledge we could find many teachers with PHD’s teaching in primary schools.

Number of students enrollment within the period of four years of implementing the policy the number of standard one to standard seven pupils enrolled in Tanzania was increased by 5.1% from 8.22 million in 2014 to 8.63 million in the year 2018 and the number of students kept on increasing for the coming years, however there are some challenges that make the parents not send their children to school regardless education is free as declared by the government when implementing education and training policy of 2014, the challenges include poor economic condition amongst parents which make them difficult to afford purchasing school uniforms, exercise books and pen to their children especially people who are living in extreme poverty, government of Tanzania  committed  to provide free  education but in reality education provided is not free 100% because other costs still incurred by parents therefore those who live in extreme poverty find it difficult  to afford day to day school expenses.

Therefore the aim of this report is to examine primary education in Tanzania in terms quality and access regarding to the implementation of various education policies in Tanzania.

INTRODUCTION

After getting independence in 9^th December 1961 Tanzania has been undergoing drastically changes in education in the focus of making education relevant to Tanzanian and work out on existed problems by that time and this called for the formulation of Education for self reliance (ESR) in 1967 which presented the educational philosophy of Tanzania, ESR laid down principles of education which could facilitate the revolution into new society characterized by self independence (whereby according to former first president Julius Kambarage Nyerere Tanzania development should depend on her natural resources), responsibility and democratic involvement.

Thereafter, the government of Tanzania under the former first President Horn. Mwl Julius Kambarage Nyerere observed some issues which didn’t addressed in the Education for self reliance policy of 1967 therefore the government decided to formulate another policy which termed as The musoma resolution in 1974 the word musoma is the district/city of origin the first president Mwl Julius Kambarage Nyerere, this resolution intended to produce graduates who can integrate education with work and expand primary and secondary education which lead to the commencement of universal primary education (UPE) in 1977,

Another education policy came into existence in Tanzania was education and training policy of 1995 under the minister of education Prof philemon sarungi and the third president of Tanzania Horn. Benjamin William Mkapa, this policy was formulated purposeful to resolve issues related to economic reforms started on the year of 1986 under the second Tanzania president Horn. Ally Hassan Mwinyi, the policy included all education subsectors and aimed at decentralizing management structure of education by giving more authorities and responsibilities to schools, colleges, universities and local communities, districts and regions, putting effort on the provision of quality education through curriculum reviews, improved teacher management and introduction and use of appropriate performance and assessment strategies, strengthening the integration of formal and non formal education relationship, by instituting knowledge comparability and inter-mobility  within the two subsectors of education, Promoting quality of non-formal education and training through the improvement of folk development colleges (FDCs) in terms of physical infrastructure, tutors education and improved tutors management and increasing access to education, by focusing on equity issue with respect to women, group with special needs and areas in the country just to mention some.

Furthermore, after the formulation of the education and training policy the government of Tanzania through the ministry of education organized special five years programs for primary and secondary schools, for primary schools the program was termed as primary education development program (PEDP) and the first phase was 2001-2006 and the second phase was 2001-2011, on the other hand, the similar program termed as secondary education development program (SEDP) was initiated in the same years for secondary schools, the programs formulated purposefully to take in hand issues that have been addressed in the education and training policy of 1995.

Education and training policy of 1995 formulated after vocational education and training act of 1994 with the aim of justifying vocational education in Tanzania and make it legally implemented as addressed in the policy.

In the same year when education and training policy formulated another education policy related to subsector of education was formulated and the policy was termed as National higher education policy for the sake of addressing issues related to higher education, another policy formulated in 1995 was the National science and Technology policy 1995 revised in 1996 and the same year in 1996 the National technical education and training policy was formulated for the purpose of addressing issues related to technical education and vocational training.

Another education and training policy covered all subsectors of education is the education and training policy of 2014 which replaced all preceding policies with the aim of making Tanzania to reach amongst the middle class economy countries, by realizing education is an important tool for improving the economy of the country the government under the minister of education by that time Dr Shukuru Kawambwa formulated the education and training policy to address those issues which could facilitate to attain the target of the country of being amongst the middle class economy by 2025 but the goal was reached before 2025  whereby in the year of 2020 the world bank mentioned Tanzania as a middle class income economy, with respect to the economic changes in Tanzania context it should seems that the implementation of education and training  policy of 2014 played an important role to change the status of the economy in Tanzania, on the other hand the changes brought by effective control of the uses of national resources facilitated by the late former president Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, during his tenure all public servants worked hard with full discipline in the use of public funds, the working spirit established by that time led to the improvement of production and finally led to the changes of the economic status of Tanzania.

Education policy of 2014 practically started to be implemented in the year of 2015 when the government of the fifth phase under former president Magufuli came into effect. Announcement of free primary education caused the increase of the number of student enrollment to the highest quantity while classrooms to accommodate the students enrolled didn’t increased yet, desks for students to sit while studying also didn’t prepared to accommodate the students.

After realizing the situation the government given order to the lower authorities including region and district authorities to make sure they prepare desks and within short period of time using their own income, fortunately most of the schools managed to have desks to accommodate the students enrolled but the challenges remained were shortage classrooms and teachers.

To resolve  the challenge the government provided fund direct to schools and ordered local authorities to use force account to construct classrooms quickly although the money was only deposited to schools within which the community had started to take initiative in the construction of classrooms in a particular schools, but in many areas especially in rural areas where people live with extreme poverty they couldn’t afford to contribute money for their schools start constructing classrooms therefore they could be eligible to receive the development grant from the central government to finish the construction of classrooms to accommodate over enrolled students, therefore most of schools overcrowded by students with shortage of teachers because when the government started to implement education and training policy of 2014 is the time stopped to recruit teachers for about three years consecutively.

Therefore, the implementation of education and training policy of 2014 was not effective regarding that the policy still being implemented currently, with respect to this the current president of the united republic of Tanzania Horn. Samia Suluhu Hassan imposed levy on mobile phone money transaction to collect money for implementing various national projects including construction of classrooms, according the information provided by the President for only two months after introducing the levy the government managed to collect 60 billion Tanzania shillings which used for constructing 220 health centers in the countries and the coming two months September and October 2021 could be used to construct 500 classroom all over the country, however the system of construction of classrooms and various school infrastructures depend on the effort made by the community to initiate the construction projects in their respective school then the government would have deposited the development grant to those schools to finish the established projects.

Unfortunately majority of people in rural areas couldn’t afford to contribute money to their respective schools in order to get the opportunity of receiving development grant from the central government, eventually many schools in rural areas have less number of classrooms to accommodate the students available at school, with regard to this the researcher intended to examine primary education in Tanzania in terms of quality and access through the implementation of various education policies of Tanzania and finally provide suggestions and recommendations which might be useful for the improvement of education quality and access in Tanzania context where majority of schools located in rural areas where people and community around there couldn’t afford to contribute money for establishing school infrastructures.

Problem Statement

Government of the united republic of Tanzania had been struggling for a long time to make sure that Tanzania sustained to be the most peaceful country around the world, it evident that all six government phases after independence in 1961 maintained peace and harmony in Tanzania Tanzanians live like relatives who are coming from the same family with love and affection regardless their geographical, cultural and social disparities, on the other hand the availability of abundant natural resources including forests, rivers, lakes, animals, minerals like Tanzanite which about over 80% is extracted in Tanzania, Gold and diamond, the availability of tourism attractive like mountains such as mount Kilimanjaro which is the highest mountain in Africa, the availability of abundant national parks like Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Manyara and Mikumi, furthermore the presence of attractive historical areas like tongoni ruins, Mushembo ruins, amboni caves, Olduvai gorge, Engaruka water canals, Bagamoyo, kaole,  kondoa irangi oldest rocks drawings etc. made Tanzania famous in tourism activities by receiving more than 1.6 million tourists per year.

Regardless the availability of abundant natural resources, favorable geographical location and peaceful condition most of Tanzanians haven’t happiness because they are living under poor economic condition, the situation even worse in the rural areas where majority are living in  extreme poverty with less than three meals per day, the situation caused by poor methods of cultivation which mainly depend on seasonal rainfall and traditional tools for cultivation like hand hoe, another factor accompanied to the poverty in Tanzania context associated with shortage of employment opportunities in both areas rural and urban, the employment challenge caused by shortage of private sectors like private companies and other non government organizations which resulted most of the graduates to depend on government employment opportunities, in fact the government cannot employee all graduates per year, therefore call for the need of strong private sector to overcome the challenge.

On the other hand education expected to be the important tool to address the problems of poor agricultural productions, low employment opportunities and poverty reduction but the thing is even the education itself having the challenge quality and access that can prepare Tanzanian to become independent economically since they could possess valid education that could make the graduates more competent enough to employ themselves and create more employment opportunities to others.

Therefore the study intended to analyze the effects of implementation of various educational policies of education in Tanzania with respect to education quality and access.

Background to the problem

Before colonial invasion in Tanzania each tribe had its own traditional system of education, traditional education implemented by a particular tribe influenced by the daily style  and system of life including daily activities performed by a particular community of different tribes, the education system during that time involved acquisition of knowledge, skills, norms, cultural values, techniques and relevant working experience, protecting from emergencies and disasters like hunger and famine, diseases and enemies of threatened the community safety and properties, the education was inherited from one generation to another.

Learning was divided according to age and sex, adults and elders facilitated the learning at home, in fact the education provided was useful and relevant to the particular context, it was provided to all people and it was free to everyone, people acquired skills which helped them to productive to their community and discouraged all kind of laziness, it enabled people to be independent, it enabled to maintain peace and harmony in the communities.

During the colonial period when Arabians came in Tanzania they started to teach Quran, that kind of education emphasized on the transmission of Islamic religion and Arabic culture,

German and British colonialisms preceded by the coming of missionaries, when they reach in Tanzania the missionaries started to provide education according to their beliefs in Christianity, education provided emphasized on the spread of Christianity.

During German colonialism education provided and mainly emphasized on skills, knowledge, working training and good citizenship to German government

British education system in Tanzania established under the foundations of racisms and provided education opportunities and better facilities to European Asians children than African children. The main purpose of British education was to get African servants who could be used to defend the demands of colonial and make the graduates to be dependant.

After getting independent in 1961Tanzania has been undergoing drastically changes in education in the focus of making education relevant to Tanzanian and work out on existed problems by that time and this called for the formulation of Education for self reliance (ESR) in 1967 which presented the educational philosophy of Tanzania, ESR laid down principles of education which could facilitate the revolution into new society characterized by self independence (whereby according to former first president Julius Kambarage Nyerere Tanzania development should depend on her natural resources), responsibility and democratic involvement.

Furthermore, the government of the united republic of Tanzania under former and first President Horn Mwl Julius Kambarage Nyerere observed some issues which didn’t addressed in the Education for self reliance policy of 1967 therefore the government decided to formulate another policy which termed as The musoma resolution in 1974 the word musoma is the district/city of origin the first president Mwl Julius Kambarage Nyerere, this resolution intended to produce graduates who can integrate education with work and expand primary and secondary education which lead to the commencement of universal primary education (UPE) in 1977,

Another education policy came into existence in Tanzania was education and training policy of 1995 under the minister of education Prof philemon sarungi and the third president of Tanzania Horn. Benjamin William Mkapa, this policy was formulated purposeful to resolve issues related to economic reforms started on the year of 1986 under the second Tanzania president Horn. Ally Hassan Mwinyi, the policy included all education subsectors and aimed at decentralizing management structure of education by giving more authorities and responsibilities to schools, colleges, universities and local communities, districts and regions, putting effort on the provision of quality education through curriculum reviews, improved teacher management and introduction and use of appropriate performance and assessment strategies, strengthening the integration of formal and non formal education relationship, by instituting knowledge comparability and inter-mobility  within the two subsectors of education, Promoting quality of non-formal education and training through the improvement of folk development colleges (FDCs) in terms of physical infrastructure, tutors education and improved tutors management and increasing access to education, by focusing on equity issue with respect to women, group with special needs and areas in the country just to mention some.

Furthermore after the formulation of the education and training policy the government of Tanzania through the ministry of education organized special five years programs for primary and secondary schools, for primary school the first five years phase of the implementation was 2001 to 2006 and the second phase of PEDP was 2007-2011 and the third phase was 2012 t0 2016, during the implementation of the plan the schools provided with capitation and development grants according to the number of students school had. Capitation grants provided by the government to respective schools through district education department was for purchasing text books and other facilities required in the process of teaching and learning, the schools received capitation grants quarterly, on the other hand development grants was for improvement of school infrastructures like rehabilitation of infrastructures like classrooms and constructions of new classrooms, offices and teachers houses, however each school was required to collect weekly contribution worth 50 Tanzanian shillings  from each students for schools to run daily operations because the capitation grants received from central government was not sufficient.

Nevertheless shortage of teachers was also a big challenge in the implementation of education and training policy of 1995, however the government kept on training and recruiting teachers but the number of teachers recruited didn’t tally to the number of students enrolled therefore the provision of quality education was problematic.

Therefore education system before colonialism was very useful and practical oriented which prepared people to be independent and master their life according to the environment surrounding them, although it lacked standards to cope with the changes to science and technology but it enabled people to be productive and independent, the changes brought by colonialism make education system to indigenous problematic which focused on preparing them to depend on employment after graduation, many education beneficiaries became useless to their communities because they couldn’t receive valid knowledge which could enable them to more competent enough to be innovative and creative for the family and community development. In fact, recently education problems in Tanzania originated by colonialism.

Interventions to the challenge faced education sector in Tanzania

With respect to the challenge faced education the first president of Tanzania after independence in 1961 Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere realized the importance of education in addressing issues of agriculture production, employment and elimination of poverty when he introduce the first education policy in  terms of declaration which conducted in Arusha region in Tanzania in 1967, Arusha declaration is popularly known as Education for Self Relience (ESR), with the purpose of preparing the education beneficiaries to be independent therefore they could be capable of employing themselves with the help of the availability of abundant natural resources in Tanzania, but the policy implementation was not effective because issues of access and quality of education was hampered by the shortage of resources and other facilities to facilitate provision of education, therefore many people couldn’t send their children to school.

When the government realized the challenge decided to organize another education policy in form of resolution done in Musoma which is the place of origin of the first president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in 1974 with the purpose of preparing human resources like teachers, doctors, engineers and other experts who could contribute to the improvement of production and finally improve the country’s economy, in addition to that the government declared universalization of primary education (UPE) for the purpose of making sure that all children with 7 years age get enrolled to school, but there was still a challenge of access and quality of education during the implementation of the policy owing to the fact that there were shortage of education facilities, infrastructures and resources, on the other hand most of the parents couldn’t afford to pay for school fees and purchasing other items related to education to their children because of the poor economic condition faced them.

After realizing the challenges which couldn’t be solved by preceding education policies the government of Tanzania under the third president Benjamin William Mkapa formulated another education and training policy which influenced by economic revolutions which was initiated by the second president of Tanzania Horn Ally Hassan  mwinyi in the year of 1986 the policy was termed as education and training policy of 1995 with the objectives of  ensuring the issues of equity, quality and access are improved, I addition to that the policy addressed issues of expanding education financing by involving private sector and stakeholders in the process of education provision.

To cater the problem of unemployment the  policy improved vocational trainings to accommodate the students who could not quality to proceed with the next level after doing national examination, also in improving access to education to all children during the implementation of education and training policy of 1995 primary school fee was removed in the year of 2000 to enable all children within the age of 7-13 get access to school and complete their education cycle, but the challenge still existed because although the parents didn’t pay school fees but they required to pay terminal and annual examination fees asked by other schools especially those schools in urban areas.

In rural areas most of the schools the teachers were writing the examination on the blackboard and students were writing the answers a piece of paper, in that situation the effectiveness and efficiency of students evaluation was doubtful which in turn the quality and validity of the examination and education venture as a whole was also problematic, similarly the parents were also required to purchase school facilities to their children like uniforms, exercise books, pen and pencils, with regard to poor economic condition faced by majority of parents especially those who used to live in rural areas many school aged children didn’t get enrolled to schools and many of the enrolled children couldn’t  complete their studies because their parents couldn’t afford to run education associated expenses.

However in addressing issues of school infrastructures and school daily operational expenses the government organized program called primary education development program (PEDP) whereby the first five years phase of the implementation was 2001 to 2006 and the second phase of PEDP was 2007-2011 and the third phase was 2012 t0 2016, during the implementation of the plan the schools provided with capitation and development grants according to the number of students school had. Capitation grants provided by the government to respective schools through district education department was for purchasing text books and other facilities required in the process of teaching and learning, the schools received capitation grants quarterly, on the other hand development grants was for improvement of school infrastructures like rehabilitation of infrastructures like classrooms and constructions of new classrooms, offices and teachers houses, however each school was required to collect weekly contribution worth 50 Tanzanian shillings  from each students for schools to run daily operations because the capitation grants received from central government was not sufficient.

Nevertheless shortage of teachers was also a big challenge in the implementation of education and training policy of 1995, however the government kept on training and recruiting teachers but the number of teachers recruited didn’t tally to the number of students enrolled therefore the provision of quality education was problematic.

In 2014 the government of the united republic of Tanzania under the fourth formulated new education and training policy which influenced by the government target to achieve to be in the middle class economy by the year of 2025 therefore there was a need to formulate education policy which will prepare an Educated Tanzanian with Knowledge, skill, competence, ability and positive attitude to contribute towards bringing development of the nation.

The challenge of shortage of classrooms to accommodate the over enrolled children couldn’t effectively resolved although schools received capitation grants and development grants for construction of school infrastructures but in terms of development grants the government provided to only schools in which the community and parents had started construction projects then the government provided the grants for finishing process only, in case of schools that located in rural areas where some people lived under extreme poverty even to get three meals per day was difficult therefore they couldn’t be able to start classrooms construction projects and the problem of overcrowded classrooms still existed.

On the other hand education and training policy of 2014 addressed well the access to education by stopping all kinds of fees and contributions to students but the parents were still incurred the costs of purchasing school facilities to their children like school uniforms, exercise books and pens whereby to other parents especially in rural areas who live under extreme poverty couldn’t afford to incur the costs as a results some aged school children were still at home and some who were enrolled to school they couldn’t manage to complete their studies. Therefore this report intended to examine primary education in Tanzania in terms of quality and access to education regarding the implementation of various education policies in Tanzania and provide useful suggestions and recommendations which could help the government and other education stakeholders in Tanzania to improve education system in terms of quality and access.

Objectives of the study

In the study to examine primary education in Tanzania general and specific objectives had been developed to guide the analysis and present a clear picture of education system in Tanzania specifically focused on primary education which determine other levels of education in any country around the world, with respect to that the following objectives would have guided the study on primary education in Tanzania

General objective

The general objective of the study presented the focal point of the study which a researcher intended to write about, therefore the general objective of the study was to examine primary education in Tanzania with respect to quality and access regarding the implementation of various education policies in Tanzania context.

Specific objectives

Specific objectives of the study presented the main areas that the researcher intended to find out the information which could describe the general objective of the study precisely, those respective points which described quality and access to education, with respect to this the following were specific objectives of the study:

1. To analyze the effects of Tanzania education and training policies in students enrollment.
2. To describe the current teacher-student and student-book ratios in Tanzania
3. To describe the current status pupils to complete primary education and dropout
4. To examine the influence of education policies, education process and environment, Teachers, students,facilities and financial resources to the provision of quality and accessible education

Research questions

This part presents the focus on the specific areas that guide the study, therefore the research guided  under the following questions:

Do Tanzania education policies facilitate effectively the provision of quality and accessible education?

Do education facilities and financial resources provided to schools facilitate effectively the implementation of education polices?

Do Tanzania education systems promote teachers to advance academically?

Theoretical framework

The research underlying on theory of inclusive education by (corbett:2001.Mittler:2000: UNESCO 1994) as presented by Liu J et al.(2012) which expresses the importance of accommodating specific needs from the learners’ perspectives which simply expressed in four step process to integrate students in schools and accommodating their needs towards achieving quality Education,the first step is provision of equal access to public schools for children, next step is to identify and responding to the needs of children’s Education, next to that is participation which is important for students to succeed public schools which include full participation from students, parents of students, teachers and administrators, the last step in the process is quality education which refers to the successful achievement of children’s education relating to their individual needs.

According to Mayawu TG(2023) quality education in Tanzania today is for the rich who can afford in expensive private schools, otherwise quality education in public sector has seriously suffered.

To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life long learning opportunities for all the UN has outlined the following targets that help to set standard of quality education which includes buildings relevant skills for financial success, eliminating  discrimination in education, universal literacy and numeracy, inclusive and safe schools  and the last target/indicator  is qualified teachers.(Concern world work.2023)

Furthermore Kyriakides J.(2021) stipulated that a negative lasting impact on child’s life since leaving school without enough qualifications may results in finding low income job and having a poorer life style.

The thoughts addressed the concepts of quality and access to education in terms of students,teachers,parents and administrators, also presented issues of  resources to account for  quality education as the author stipulated that private schools in Tanzania provide quality education compared to public schools, actually, the issues of resources have been used to account for, however, education policies influence the quality of education.

According to Bashar S(2022) Education policies are the driving forces for actualizing the pr-determined national objectives because all other policies of the sectors of the economy depend heavily on education to succeed.

Obviously qualified teachers influence quality of education however in Tanzania in-service teachers discouraged to advance their knowledge due to the poor system of appraising their effort to study, the system practiced by Tanzania Teachers commission demoralizes in-service teachers to advance academically and eventually education quality in Tanzania is questionable. This supported by J. Oyiego Orina et al. (2021) as stipulated that teacher motivation is by large the major determinant of students’ success during the schooling process. This is primarily because a motivated teacher is likely to be more engaged and enthusiastic in the work place. Advancement of teachers  knowledge can highly motivate teachers to work effectively and facilitate the provision of quality education.

On the other hand due to weaknesses exerted in the education policies resulted weaknesses in curriculum formulation, for example the curriculum for degree students and Masters don’t reflect the reality of what is going to be done by the graduates  in the actual working environment or life, the university graduates are mainly prepared to work in the offices like officers, however, majority of university graduates in teaching career in Tanzania context work in classroom teaching, therefore the curriculum should be re prepare the graduates in teaching career with enough knowledge, skills and techniques of teaching and problem solving through research.

Conceptual Framework

Therefore quality education determined by quality education policies, quality process and environment, quality teachers, quality facilities  and financial resources.

If education policies are well formulated by considering needs of  stakeholders from the grassroots  such as students, teachers, parents and society the implementation of such policies will be effective. As a matter of fact, students academic achievements depends heavily on the quality of teachers. Actually the quality of teachers determined by quality knowledge which enhance relevant creativity and skills, therefore teachers shouldn’t be discouraged to advance academically, also education process must prepare a student to act effectively in their environment, curriculum of teachers education should be different according to the level of studies, for example, degree holders teachers must be competent enough compared to diploma and certificate holders, but in Tanzania, you can not differentiate teachers according to their level of education, unfortunately, most certificate teachers seem to be more competent than those teachers of diploma and degree levels in delivering materials in the classroom. Generally, quality education policies implementation , effectiveness of education  processes and environment as well as preparing  quality teachers who facilitate the implementation depend on the availability of quality facilities and financial resources.

Figure below represents conceptual framework of the study

Figure 1.5.1 conceptual frame work to describe quality and access in education.

METHOD

This part presents  ways applied to collect information related to research. Both primary and secondary tools for data collection  were used.

Study area description

Tanzania located to the eastern part of African continent. It contains the total land area of 945087 kilometer squares and population of 59734218 people in 2020 it it was projected to be 61.498 million in 2021.

In eastern part of Tanzania bordered the Indian ocean, Kenya and Uganda countries shared border with Tanzania in the north, Rwanda, Burundi Democratic republic of Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south.

The country includes the island of Zanzibar, but in the study focused on the mainland of Tanzania excluding Zanzibar because in education issue is not related to the union matters as Tanzania formed by the union of two countries Tanzania mainland previously known Tanganyika and Zanzibar in the island together they formed Tanzania.

In the mainland the number of regions are 26 and in the island the number of regions are 5, the total number of district council are 169 including island

To make Analysis meaningful, most of analysis was done by making comparisons of different zones available in Tanzania.Tanzania comprised of 5 different zones which include Central zone which made up of four regions such as Dodoma, Kigoma, singida and Tabora, Coast zone including five regions namely  Dar es salaam, Lindi, Morogoro, Mtwara and Pwani,  Lake zone including six regions such as Geita, Kagera, Mara, Mwanza, Shinyanga and simiyu, Northern zone including four regions which such as Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara and Tanga and Southern highland zone including seven regions such as Iringa, Katavi, Mbeya, Njombe, Rukwa, Ruvuma and Songwe.

The chart below summarized zones and regions available in Tanzania in which the analysis based on

Chart 2.1 Zones and regions in Tanzania in which the analysis based on

Primary Data

To obtain relevant information, both interviews, questionnaires and observation tools were used to collect data in six primary schools in both Mkinga district and Kibaha town councils from Tanga and pwani (coast) regions respectively. Questionnaires used to collect data from 100 primary school teachers, interview used to collect data from 8 educational officers in particular districts.

Sampling

Both Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select respondents, purposive sampling used to select specific information from six schools and random sampling used to select teachers from those six schools.

Secondary Data

To obtain rich and valid data for this study, government-issued documents released by Tanzania government for official or academic use that addressed education or issues related to education were selected and explored for information related to education policy. The documents selected included the 2014 Tanzania Education and Training Policy (ETP), Education and training policy of 1995, Education for self reliance (ESR) in 1967 and The musoma resolution in 1974 policies documents were not easily accessed, therefore the researcher used the information regarding these two policies from other authors publications.

Other information related to enrollment, pupil-teacher and pupil-book ratios as well as status of pupils to complete primary education and dropout were obtained from the website of the ministry of education and vocational training specifically in basic education statistics (BEST 2020 and 2021)

Methods of Analyses

To understand changes in educational policy, and to identify major trends and issues in primary education, the 2014 ETP and 1995 were descriptively analyzed, and selected words in strategic and working documents were counted to indicate their importance. A descriptive policy analysis process describes the development process of policy under scrutiny (Patton, 2009) hence identification of the existing flaws. By using multiple sources (policy and action plan documents) and two different data analysis approaches (descriptive and word count), researchers can clearly understand the policy context and implementation atmosphere, thus enhancing the quality of their findings (Onwuegbuzie, Leech & Collins, 2012).

In most sub-Saharan countries, there are various forces that necessitate the formulation of or changes to educational policy (Mtahabwa, 2010; VargasBaron, 2015). However, such changes do not necessarily reflect grassroots’ educational needs (Mtahabwa, 2010). As such, descriptive text analysis of policy documents was chosen as the most appropriate method of analysis and quantitative analysis regarding enrollment of pupils, ratios of pupil-teacher and pupil-book was also used.

RESULTS

This section first offers a critical descriptive analysis of the 2014 ETP and 1995 ETP documents, and then a more quantitative analysis of the implementations.

Introduction

Following the implementation of structural adjustment programs, from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, Tanzania pursued a liberalization policy, in which education was offered on a costs-haring basis. Pupils’ parents had to pay school fees and make “other” contributions, such as laboratory costs, and school uniforms; while the government employed the teachers, and paid capitation grants to cover schools’ administrative and recurrent costs. The 2014 ETP abolished payment of school fees and “other contributions” in public schools (Policy statement 3.1.5) to ensure pupils from poor households and other marginal groups can more readily access education. The Policy also established compulsory free basic education, by replacing the former education cycle. This included two years of pr-primary, seven years of primary education and four years of secondary education.

Analysis on the effects of Tanzania education and training policies in students enrollment

After getting independence in 1961 the rate of pupils’ enrollment in primary schools in Tanzania was increasing slightly till 1967 when the government formulated first sub sector education policy termed Education for self reliance (ESR).

During the implementation of policy education was free which resulted to the increase of pupils’ enrollment by 55% from 486470 pupils enrolled  in 1961 to 754170 in 1968 when the implementation started.

Although there was challenge regarding the awareness of parents to realize the importance of education which made some school aged children not got enrolled to school but the policy implementation stimulated the increase of primary school pupils’ enrollment.

Another education policy which altered the rate of primary school pupils’ enrollment was Musoma resolution education policy formulated in 1974, like the first education policy Musoma resolution was the initiative of the first Tanzania president Mwl Julius Kambarage Nyerere to make sure that Tanzania would increase and improve the quantity and quality of manpower through education for the purpose of improving the economy of the country.

To carter the problem of some parent not to send their children to school the government announced universal primary education in 1977 to make it mandatory for all school aged pupils, due to that the number of pupils’ enrollment was increased by 137% from 1228886 in 1974 to 2912984 in 1978 when the implementation started.

Another education and training policy which had effect on the pupils’ enrollment was education and training policy of 1995 which preceded by the implementation of structural adjustment programs, from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, Tanzania pursued a liberalization policy, in which education was offered on a cost sharing basis. Pupils’ parents had to pay school fees and make “other” contributions, such as laboratory costs, and school uniforms; while the government employed the teachers, and paid capitation grants to cover schools’ administrative and recurrent.

Due that the enrollment decreased by 9.3% from 3483944 in 1984 to 3160145 in 1985 when the implementation of structural adjustment programs started.

The last education policy which affected the enrollment of pupils in primary education was education and training policy of 2014 whereby during the implementation of the policy in 2016 the enrollment increased significantly due to the fact that the government abolished payment of school fees and “other contributions” in public schools (Policy statement 3.1.5) to ensure pupils from poor households and other marginal groups can more readily access education. The Policy also established compulsory free basic education, by replacing the former education cycle. This included two years of pr-primary, seven years of primary education and four years of secondary education.

Therefore, enrollment of pupils in primary education increased by 4.7% from 8245382 in 2015 to 86392024 in 2016 when the implementation of the policy started.

The following chart summarized the enrollment of pupils in primary education since independence

Chart 3.1 Summary on the pupils’ enrollment in primary education in Tanzania

Current status of pupils’ enrollment in primary education

Since the implementation of education and training policy of 2014 started in the year of 2016, the number of pupils being enrolled in primary schools kept on increasing yearly because of the free education policy statement stated in the particular education and training policy.

Number of pupils enrolled increased by 32.8% from 8245382 in 2015 to 10951871 in 2022.

The chart below summarized the number of pupils enrolled in the year 2022

Chart 3.2 Number of pupils enrolled in 2022

Gender parity index in 2022

Gender parity index is the ratio of females to males, that is the number of females divided by males.

In the year of 2022 gender parity index in all zones available in Tanzania was above one (1) except in northern zone where the index was 0.98 which implied that the number of male pupils enrolled was higher than the number of female pupils but in the remaining four zones the number of female pupils enrolled was higher than the number of male pupils.

In general the total number male pupils enrolled in 2022 was 5416471  equal to 49.46 percent compared lower than the female pupils which was 5535400  equal to 50.54  percent of the total enrollment.

The chart below summarized gender parity index among-st the pupils enrolled in 2022 in primary education.

Chart 3.1.3 Gender parity index

Analysis on the current teacher-student and student-book ratios in Tanzania

It was during the implementation of education and training policy 2014 in 2016  when the government declared to provide free education for primary school, weekly contributions, terminal and annual examination contributions abolished, the schools received capitation grants from the central government monthly instead of quarterly, teachers stopped to collect any amount of directly from the students.

According that many parents sent their children to school and the schools were overcrowded by students with shortage of classrooms and desks and teachers, at that time recruitment of teachers stopped three years, the problem became even worse until the government decided to shift secondary school teachers who taught arts and humanity subjects to teach in primary schools although the decision was not so much helpful but somehow reduced the problem of the shortage of teachers.

The current status of pupil-teacher ratio in government schools given by the following in central zone the ratio found to be 1:73, in coast zone the ratio found to be 1:55, in Lake zone the ratio found to be 1:70, in Northern zone the ratio found to be 1:51 and in Southern highland zone the ratio found to be 1:58, therefore implied that the number of teachers required in Tanzania especially in government schools didn’t tally to the standard pupil-teacher ratio required which is 1:40.

The chart below summarized the pupil-teacher ratio in Tanzania

Chart 3.2.1 Pupil-teacher ratio in government schools

In non government schools the situation was different because the ratio of pupil-teacher was very low owing to the fact that most of the parents were not able to access sending their children to private schools due to financial problem, therefore the less the number of pupils enrolled favor the pupil-teacher ratio.

In all zones in Tanzania the ratio range from 1:19 to 1:21 which made the average to be 1:20 which implied one teacher teach twenty pupils.

The chart below summarized pupil-teacher ratio in non government schools

Chart 3.2.2 Pupil-teacher ratio in non government schools

Also it was found out that number of qualified teachers in primary schools in both government and non government schools the total number of teachers with PHD was 12, with masters was 304, with PGDE was 564, with bachelor degree was 21591, with Diploma was 33591, with Grade A teaching certificate was 141294, with Grade B/C teaching certificate was 1483 and others who didn’t have teaching qualification was 1498 and majority were available in non government schools.

The table below summarized the number of teachers in Tanzania by qualification.

Table 3.2.1 Number of teachers by Qualification

Owing to that fact that the government has taken the responsibility of preparing and distributing books in all schools in Tanzania therefore the ratio of pupil-book didn’t found to vary significantly in all regions and zones in Tanzania instead the variation in ratios could be experienced in the types of books and classes themselves but not in schools, district, regions or zones because the distribution being done equally.

Tanzania institute of education has given authority to prepare and distribute books in schools to make education provision in different to be uniform and that of standard and quality required.

Pupil-book ratio expressed the number of pupils to the number of books used by the particular pupils

The following chart summarized pupils-book in Tanzania

Chart 3.2.3 Pupils-book ratio

Analysis on the current status pupils to complete primary education and dropout

It was found out that the number of pupils sat for the national examination which known as primary school leaving examination (PSLE) increased each year, similarly the number of pupils passed the examination and qualified to proceed with secondary education also increased significantly.

On the other hand there were many students who couldn’t qualify to proceed with secondary education and there was no serious intervention to provide opportunity to those pupils to proceed with other vocational studies regarding that they complete their primary education within the age of 13 to 14 that means they were still very young.

It was obvious the government had constructed vocational training centers for the pupils to join and study vocational training but the number of those centers didn’t accommodate the number of pupils that needed to join.

In addition to that pupils required to pay fees for their studies in those vocational training centers including other expenses related to the studies which found it difficult for parents to afford sending their children to vocational training centers instead the children left at home with age of 13 to 14.

Due to that reason some children tend to join bad groups and doing robbery and other related criminals like what experienced currently in Dar es salaam region children within the age of 14 to 17 popularly known as ‘‘panya road’’ organized themselves and conduct robbery in various streets in Dar es salaam region which is the famous city in business in Tanzania.

The following chart below summarized the number of pupils sat for the PSLE and those who passed the particular examination and qualified to proceed with secondary education

Chart 3.3.1 Number of pupils sat for PSLE and percentage of pupils passed the examination

Pupils dropout

It was found out that although the number of pupils enrolled in primary education increased each year since Tanzania gained her independence but on the other hand there were corresponding increase to the number of pupils to go out of the school before completing their education cycle.

The situation caused by different factors but the mainly were poor supervision in both home and school that means there would be no serious coordination and cooperation between school management and parents, due to that most of the parents due toe economic problem faced their families tend to stop their female children to school and get them married so that they could get money from dowry and others get them being employed in early age so that the families could get income.

Although the government formulated laws and bylaws to make sure that all school aged children sent to school and complete their education cycle but in many areas people don’t corporate with the government or school management to report those people who get married to or employed the children who supposed to be at school, they tend to defend themselves and hide suspects.

The chart below summarized the number of pupils’ dropout at school

Chart 3.3.2 Pupils’ dropout in Tanzania

Teachers in-service morale to advance academically

Questionnaires were distributed 100 respondents asking their perceptions to determine if the education systems encourage in-service teachers to advance academically, the respondents required to state either they were strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly. disagree and the responses.

Table 3.4.1: Teachers in-service morale to advance academically

Source: teachers responses from six different schools( Mkoani, Kambarage and Mkoleni primary schools in Kibaha town council, Duga, mwakikoya and Kibewani primary schools from Mkinga district council)

From the figure above only six (6) teachers said they strongly agree that education system in Tanzania encourage in-service teachers to advance academically, eleven (11) agreed that education system in Tanzania encourage in-service teachers to advance academically, thirty five (35) teachers disagree that education system in Tanzania encourage in-service teachers to advance academically, forty eight (48) teachers strongly that education system in Tanzania encourage in-service teachers to advance academically. This implies that Tanzania  education system and policies discourage the morale of teachers to improve their knowledge and skills.

Furthermore, interview conducted to 8 educational officers to ask their responses towards the morale of in-service teachers to improve their knowledge the responses all eight education officers were almost the same, they disagree that the system is not supportive, they added that the biggest hindrance is Tanzania teachers commission responsible for promoting teachers after increasing their levels of education. They added that promotion process is problematic  and biased especially in the district level, the officers use re-categorization term as a tool to punish those in-service teachers who went out for studies.

DISCUSSION

The study reviewed different education policies in Tanzania context to analyze effectiveness of the implementation of policies in terms of quality and access to education, regarding to this the study revealed various issues related to the implementation of education policies in Tanzania specifically in primary educationist was found out that the implementation of the first education policy known as education for self reliance in 1967 altered the rate of pupils’ enrollment by 55% from 486470 pupils enrolled  in 1961 to 754170 in 1968 when the implementation started.

Although there was challenge regarding the awareness of parents to realize the importance of education which made some school aged children not got enrolled to school but the policy implementation stimulated the increase of primary school pupils’ enrollment.

Another education policy which altered the rate of primary school pupils’ enrollment was Musoma resolution education policy formulated in 1974, like the first education policy Musoma resolution was the initiative of the first Tanzania president Mwl Julius Kambarage Nyerere to make sure that Tanzania would increase and improve the quantity and quality of manpower through education for the purpose of improving the economy of the country.

To carter the problem of some parent not to send their children to school the government announced universal primary education in 1977 to make it mandatory for all school aged pupils, due to that the number of pupils’ enrollment was increased by 137% from 1228886 in 1974 to 2912984 in 1978 when the implementation started.

Another education and training policy which had effect on the pupils’ enrollment was education and training policy of 1995 which preceded by the implementation of structural adjustment programs, from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, Tanzania pursued a liberalization policy, in which education was offered on a cost sharing basis. Pupils’ parents had to pay school fees and make “other” contributions, such as laboratory costs, and school uniforms; while the government employed the teachers, and paid capitation grants to cover schools’ administrative and recurrent.

Due that the enrollment decreased by 9.3% from 3483944 in 1984 to 3160145 in 1985 when the implementation of structural adjustment programs started.

The last education policy which affected the enrollment of pupils in primary education was education and training policy of 2014 whereby during the implementation of the policy in 2016 the enrollment increased significantly due to the fact that the government abolished payment of school fees and “other contributions” in public schools (Policy statement 3.1.5) to ensure pupils from poor households and other marginal groups can more readily access education. The Policy also established compulsory free basic education, by replacing the former education cycle. This included two years of pr-primary, seven years of primary education and four years of secondary education.

Therefore, enrollment of pupils in primary education increased by 4.7% from 8245382 in 2015 to 86392024 in 2016 when the implementation of the policy started.

In general the increase in quantity in education doesn’t signify that the quality of education, on the other hand the implementation of all education policies in Tanzania faced with the challenge to meet the quality and access to education.

Many pupils who would not qualify to join secondary education after undertaking PSLE they couldn’t even be able to employ themselves by engaging in various activities like agriculture, small businesses and other low skilled activities using the knowledge they have got at school which implied that quality of education was questionable that couldn’t prepare the pupils to have knowledge and skills that could make them to be useful to their communities and families.

The quality of education also affected by the quality and quantity of teachers in Tanzania that’s why during the implementation of all education policies in Tanzania the objectives of the policies couldn’t be met because the number of teachers didn’t sufficient to accommodate the number of enrolled pupils and also some teachers were not knowledgeable enough to fulfill the demand of the education policies.  J. Oyiego Orina et al. (2021) stipulated that teacher motivation is by large the major determinant of students’ success during the schooling process. This is primarily because a motivated teacher is likely to be more engaged and enthusiastic in the work place. Advancement of teachers  knowledge can highly motivate teachers to work effectively and facilitate the provision of quality education,

CONCLUSION

Tanzania is one of the countries which grow well economically With an average real GDP growth rate of 6.3% over the past decade (2010-2019), Tanzanian is among the fastest-growing economies in Africa and in the world.

According to the IMF, the real GDP of Tanzania grew by 4.8% in 2020 reaching USD 64.4 billion versus USD 60.8 billion in 2019.

The Fund projects a GDP growth for Tanzania of +4.0% and +5.1% in 2021 and 2022, and 6.0% in 2026. However, in its East Africa Economic Outlook 2021 report, the AfDB estimates that Tanzania’s GDP will grow by 2.8% in 2021, and projecting a strong rebound for 2022 and 2023 with 4.9% and 6.3% economic growth respectively, it is undeniable  that in each country all over the world the economic growth is not subjected to the quality of  education, it is obvious that Tanzania striven to reduce the gap in education access to the children from primary school to university, as from primary school level to secondary school level (ordinary level) the education was declared by the government in seven years back to be free, and in advanced secondary level the fees was reduced to the maximum to enable the students to get access to education, on the other hand in university level the government of Tanzania provide loans to those students eligible to join the university with division three and above in their advanced level (form five and six), these efforts made by the government of Tanzania shouldn’t be underestimated, however, in order  education to facilitate the growth of economy  it need to the kind of education which is quality, therefore Tanzania need to improve the quality of education by ensuring equal distribution of education infrastructures like school buildings such as classrooms, equal distribution of quality teachers to meet the demands of education policies, education system should be improved to make sure that it should be relevant to the current situation like integration of education technology in all schools especially in primary schools where is the foundation of education. Nevertheless, if workload of teachers is manageable they will contribute effectively in the provision of quality education, all daily activities must be well scheduled  to make teachers work  unless teachers will continue to work in order to accomplish their daily routine quantitatively but in qualitative aspect is a big challenge.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

After completing my Case Study Segment (CSS), I would like to appreciate and extend my gratitude to whoever contributed in the whole process up to now.

I would like to thank KIIT university, School of Rural management. My gratitude goes to professors who were ready to give us training for my CSS workshop who are Prof. Ganesha HS, Prof. V Venkatakrishnan and Prof. Nirmal Mandal, Prof Srilata Patnaik and Prof Damoda Jena who took their precious time to spend with me for my pre-CSS placements. Nevertheless, I share my special thanks to My faculty guide Prof Venkatakrishnan who was always there for me during CSS placement and he preciously took his time to guide me.

Also, I wouldn’t have made CSS without the great support from My family, friends and Mkoani primary school staff members who were there to support me both ideally and financially.

My special thanks extend to Ma’am Adelhelma Shawa the head of Mkoani primary school, my best friends Haroun Issack, Rehema Dyamwale Judith kivaria, Dawuud and Idrisa, I really apreaciate.

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