Rose Matete

University of Dodoma

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•Before independence:

•After independence Tanzania inherited:

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• Strategies to ensure services to all:

i. Arusha Declaration (AD)

ii. Education for Self-Reliance (ESR) policy was

introduced in the same year of 1967

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•ESR was a philosophical critique to colonial education:

•Objectives of ESR:
-Provision of equal chance of educational opportunity to
all population
-Prepare individuals to be useful members of the
society
-Respect dignity and manual work
-Provision of practical)education

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• Primary education was declared the right to every school age
child in order to achieve the UPE from 1969-1977.
• Centralisation of the provision of education after the local
government has failed to run it
•1970 was declared a year of AE
•Enrolment in literacy classes increased from 0.91 mil. in 1971 to
5.18 mil. in 1975 and 8.82 mil in 1977
•In 1961, 75% of population was illiterate. The rate decreased up
to 39% in 1975, 25% in 1977, 21% in 1981, 15% in 1984.
•Women enrolment was higher as women illiteracy rate was
higher compared to men
•It is estimated that in 1967, about 80% of women were literate.

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•Primary school teachers, volunteers, secondary school students
joined in the literacy campaigns.
•Rural library service and AE radio programmes were
introduced.
•Establishment of Folk Development colleges in 1975 for post
adult literacy classes
•Production of local news papers eg. “Elimu haina mwisho” and
“Elimu ni Bahari”.
•Nyerere cut down of his salary and that of ministers and senior
officials by 20 percent.
•There were an increase of enrolment from 0.47 mil. in 1971 to
2.2 mil in 1979, 3.3 mil. in 1980 and 3.54 mil. in 1981. In 1984,
about 75% of school age children were in schools.
•Tanzania achieved UPE during the 1970s and 1977 was called a
year of UPE
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In 1974 the Musoma Resolution (MR) was launched with the
aim of carrying further the implementation of ESR:
-Removal of direct entry to universities
- Introduction of the coursework and do away with
total dependence on examinations

Development of critical thinking and inquiring mind:

-Introduction of double sessions
-the use of upper grade primary education
-Intensification of the use of grade C teachers
-Each level of education was to be complete by itself
-Prepare the majority for village life

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•Shortage of teachers (esp. grade A teachers) – primary school
learners to teach the same level
•Shortage of classrooms, furniture,, textbooks, teachers’ houses,
latrines and other important teaching and learning materials
•Education for disabled children was not well taken care of eg,
blind, deaf, physical impaired had few schools, mentally
retarded were almost forgotten.
•Only 5% of school running costs could be realized instead of
the expected 25%.
•Only the few were selected to join secondary education
•Failure of primary education to be terminal
•More than 15% of form IV leavers could not employ themselves
 
 

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• During late 1970s Tanzania experienced economic crisis:
- War with Uganda
-Increased international debts due oil shocks
& deteriorated terms of trade in the world market
-Corrupt/weak leadership
-Droughts or unfavourable weather

• The government was unable to shoulder the provision of

free education for all its population

• Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in the mid 1980s

supported by the WB & IMF

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•Decentralisation was among the strategies for re-adjustment
of the economy. Other strategies included:
-Retrenchment of workers
-Introduction of multiparty democracy
-Privatisation of major means of economy & social
services including education
-Reduction of subsidies in agricultural activities & in
education
-Cost sharing /user fees in education

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•Private schools mushroomed
•Increase of illiteracy rates eg. by 2003 about 1 mil. children in
Tanzania did know how to read and write
•Establishment of day sec. schools esp. in urban areas. Parents
were responsible for education (housing and food)
•By 1990, there were many students in private schools than public
schools eg. 9.3% of STD VII leavers were selected to join private
schools and only 6.5% for public schools
-Most of these private schools concentrated in prosperous
regions
•Most of the poor could not afford to send their children to
school
•Most of STD VII migrated to urban areas seeking for jobs
•Some went to mining industries, prostitution
•With rampant unemployment in urban areas most of them
ended in the streets.
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•These problems added to the already fragile economy as
potential productive population continued to trek to towns and
cities due to:
-hunger in villages
-droughts
-inability to buy seeds
•Shouldering the transport costs
•School fees in public secondary schools
•Substantial contributions of parents in primary schools
•Cost-sharing in higher learning institutions
•The Tanzania Education and Training Policy of 1995 is based
on the Task force report

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• PEDP has mainly been a response to achieve:
-Education for All (EFA) goals &
-Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)
• PEDP has a parallel programmes known as Complementary
Basic Education in Tanzania (COBET)
• PEDP has been part of other wider government-
restructuring reforms, such as:
-Education Sector Development Programme (ESDP)
which covers all levels of education
-Broader National Development Strategy (BNDS)
[MKUKUTA], a national strategy for growth and poverty
reduction that covers all sectors
-LGRP of 1999 (D by D)

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•The government exempted the school fees
•Power has been given to SCs to manage their own schools
•The government provides the Development Grants & Capitation
Grants

•SCs are responsible for:

-Overseeing the day-to-day functions of the schools for
teacher accountability
-Preparing the school development plans
-Ensuring compulsory enrolment and attendance

•Classroom are to be constructed by the parents and community

(labour power)
•The government provides the finishing

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•To increase transparency in financial resources, amount of
funds have to be known by SC members and teachers

•Open Performance, Review & Appraisal System (OPRAS)

2004:
- To improve accountability & public service provision
-Setting agreements for performance criteria or
indicators
-OPRAS to be used as basis for teacher evaluation

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1. Participation of local people in school management
a. Expansion of enrolment for standard I pupils as parents
are mobilised to send their children to school

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Table 1: Primary school enrolment from
2001-2010 (in 000’s)
Year Boys Girls Total
2001 2,474 2,407 4,882
2002 3,052 2,929 5,981
2003 3,365 3,197 6,563
2004 3,626 3,457 7,083
2005 3,856 3,685 7,541
2006 4,052 3,908 7,960
2007 4,215 4,102 8,317
2008 4,262 4,148 8,410
2009 4,249 4,193 8,442
2010 4,203 4,216 8,419
Source: URT (2004: 1; 2006: 1; 2010: 14)

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Table 2: GER and NER
Year GER NER
2007 114.4 97.3

2008 112.3 97.2

2010 106.4 95.4

Source: URT, 2008: 24); (URT, 2010: 17).

 The NER which is the best and truest indicator, has been high and
quite stable across the regions.

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 b. Enrolment of pupils with disabilities in primary
schools
i.e. about 24,000 in 2007 to 35,000 in 2008 about 46%
of the increase

c. Reduced dropout rate for STD I-VII

i.e 66.6% in 2007 to 2.6% in 2010.

d. Reaching the out-of-school children through COBET

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 Table 3: Gross enrolment of COBET learners in 2010

Cohorts Number of COBET pupils

Males Females Total

Cohort I 26,646 22,675 49,321

Cohort II 12,857 10,621 23,478

Total 39,503 33,296 72,799

Source: URT (2010: 38)

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 Table 4: COBET learners mainstreamed in
formal schooling (Standard V and Form I)-2010
Cohorts COBET learners who sat for Mainstreamed to standard V and
the exam (Std IV and PSLE) Form I respectively

Males Females Total Males Females Total

Cohort I 5,950 4,164 10,114 5,149 (87%) 3,415 (82%) 8,564(85%)

Cohort II 4,913 3,262 8,175 3,026 (62%) 1,540 (47%) 4,566 (56%)

Source: URT (2010: 39, 40)

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2. Reduction of corruption and misuse of funds
-Financial resources are sent directly to the school
(Financial transparency)

3. Management of schools by the SCs

-E.g having school bank accounts managed by SCs
-SCs responsible for the procurement of T/L materials

4. Building a sense of ownership of the schools among

communities
Eg. construction of classrooms, teacher houses and
school latrines

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 Table 4 Construction of classrooms and teachers’ houses

Year Classrooms Teachers’ houses

Const. Actual % of Const. Actual % of
target const. target target const. target
2002 13,868 8,817 63 2,109 7,732 367
2003 13,396 10,771 80 3,262 467 14
2004 14,203 10,334 73 4,440 863 27
2005 6,794 6,618 73 3,169 3,528 111
2006 5,832 **4,091 97 2,175 **4,539 209
Total 54,093 38,721 70 15,155 14,443 113

Source: URT (2007: 11)

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1. The focus under decentralised PEDP has been on quantity
and not on quality
E.g Massive congestion of classrooms and shortage of
desks which hinder effective T/L

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•Teachers complain about heavy workload that undermine
their performance and accountability:
-Difficult to mark pupils’ work
-Difficult to walk around & check what pupils do
-Unable to check pupils’ handwriting
-Concentration on the bright pupils
-No time to help pupils with learning
needs/difficulties
-Fear of giving homework to pupils
-Option for multiple choices type of questions to
fastening marking of large number of exams

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• A survey in Mbeya City in 2011 indicated that more than
8,000 of pupils do not know 3Rs in primary schools.

•>4,000 people in Kilindi district in Tanga region and about

140,000 people in Sumbawanga district do not know 3Rs
(Mwananchi, 2 November 2012: 17; Nuru Yetu, April–June,
2012: 6).

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•The national performance for PSLE in 2012 shows:
-Only 0.3 per cent scored an ‘A’ grade
-About 5 per cent scored ‘B’,
•-About 25 per cent scored ‘C’
-The majority (60%) scored ‘D’ &
-About 8 per cent scored ‘E’ (Mwananchi 21st December 2012).

2. Shortage of financial resources at school level:

• Provision of CGs is not based on pupils’ enrolment
• The meagre funds from the DEOs come with tight
specifications
• A SC appears to be a mere signatory tool to endorse the
money from the DEO rather than being important organ
for decision-making in a SBM.

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3. Poverty among the community and parents;
Eg. Classroom construction by the parents
(provision of labour power)

-Decentralisation under PEDP seems likely to create

inequality

4. Shortages of T/L materials:

E.g Textbook in a ratio of 1:10 or 1:20
5. Mismanagement at district level:
-Eg. Shortage of teachers due to poor teacher deployment

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 Table 5 Number of teachers and pupils in selected school sites

S/N Region Name of Number of pupils Available Teachers Teacher Shortag Excess
school requirem es
ent
B G T M F T

1 MBY A 492 578 1070 4 17 21 24 3 -

2 DSM B 726 764 1490 3 29 32 33 1 -
3 DSM C 785 874 1659 10 37 47 35 - 12
4 DSM D 873 913 1786 4 57 61 40 - 11
5 MBY E 530 556 1086 4 17 21 24 3 -
6 MBY F 203 205 408 2 8 10 9 - 1
7 DSM G 1388 1357 2745 10 37 47 61 14 -
8 DSM H 585 624 1209 1 27 28 27 - 1
9 MBY I 297 308 605 2 21 23 13 - 10
10 MBY J 367 360 727 4 12 16 16 - -
Total 5461 5665 11,126 44 262 306 282 21 35

Source: Field data (2011)

Key: B= Boys, G= Girls, T= Total, M= Males, F= Females and Dsm= Dar es Salaam

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