abolishment of school fees in tanzania

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GÖTEBORGS UNIVERSITET School of Global StudiesCentre for African Studies

The abolishment of school fees in Tanzania

- A case study of the quality of education

Masters Thesis, Africa and International

Development Cooperation

Authors: Erik Björkdahl and Patrick Lundqvist

Supervisor: Erik Andersson

Spring, 2006



ABSTRACT

The purpose of this thesis is to examine different educational actors’ view to what extent

the quality of education has been affected since the abolishment of the school fees in

primary school. The following questions have been formulated for this study:

- What have been the effects on the primary education after the abolishment of the

school fees?

- What are the different educational actor’s views about the quality of education in

Tanzania since the abolishment of the school fees?

- How will the conditions for implementing the PEDP be affected of the

abolishment of the school fees?

We have used a case study approach including statistical data, interviews, policies from

the Tanzanian Government and other published material. The interviews were made

during our stay in Tanzania, April 2006. Three interviews took place. The first interview

took place at the Swedish embassy with a senior program officer, the second with an

employee at Tanzania Teachers Union and the third with a primary school teacher in Dar

es Salaam.

The results present that in the year 2005 approximately 2.7 million more children were

enrolled compared to 2001. The Net Enrolment Ratio in 2001 was 66 percent comparedto 94.8 percent in 2005. The Pupil-Teacher Rate increased from 46:1 in 2001 to 59:1 in

2005. We found that the burden for the teachers increased during this period and that the

teachers’ status declined. This had to do with the abolishment of the school fees. There

were both negative and positive views regarding the quality of education. However, there

were more negative opinions. We also argue that the abolishment of the school fees

affected the conditions for implementing PEDP entirely. It seems to us that the quantity

have been given higher priority than quality. We also found that everybody we spoke to

was positive towards the decision to abolish the school fees in primary school in

Tanzania.



ABBREVIATIONS

BEDC = Basic Education Development Committee

CCM = Chama Cha Mapinduzi

EFA = Education for All

ESDP = Education Sector Development Program

ESR = Education for Self-Reliance

ETP = Education and Training Policy

GER = Gross Enrolment Ratio

IMF = International Monetary Fund

MDG = Millennium Development Goals

MoEC = Ministry of Education and Culture

NER = Net Enrolment Ratio

NGO = Non-Governmental Organization

PEDP = Primary Education Development Plan

PTR = Pupil-Teacher Rate

SACMEQ = Southern & East. Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality

SAP = Structural adjustment program

Sida = Swedish International Development cooperation Agency

TANU = Tanganyika African National UnionTTU = Tanzania Teacher’s Union

UNESCO = United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNICEF = United Nations Children’s Fund

UPE = Universal Primary Education

URT = United Republic of Tanzania



CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 1

1.2 BACKGROUND............................................................................................................ 21.3 PURPOSE AND DELIMITATIONS ................................................................................... 2

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.............................................................................. 3

2.1 QUALITY OF THE TEACHERS ....................................................................................... 32.2 QUALITY OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS.............................................. 4

3. METHOD ...................................................................................................................... 6

3.1 VALUATION OF THE SOURCES..................................................................................... 8

4. PREVIOUS RESEARCH............................................................................................. 8

5. TANZANIA ................................................................................................................. 10

5.1 HISTORY .................................................................................................................. 10

6. EMPIRICAL CHAPTER........................................................................................... 13

6.1 CASE OF STATISTICS ................................................................................................ 136.2 CASE OF TANZANIA GOVERNMENT - EDUCATION AND TRAINING POLICY ............... 18

6.2.1 History and background of the policy.............................................................. 18 6.2.2 Main aims and objectives................................................................................. 20 6.2.3 System and structure of education and training .............................................. 20 6.2.4 Access and equity............................................................................................. 20 6.2.5 Management and administration ..................................................................... 21 6.2.6 Formal education and training........................................................................ 22 6.2.7 School curricula, examinations and certification............................................ 22

6.2.8 ESDP................................................................................................................ 23 6.2.9 PEDP ............................................................................................................... 23

6.3 CASE OF THE INTERVIEWS ........................................................................................ 246.4 CASE OF THE NGO HAKIELIMU AND THEIR VIEW ON PEDP .................................... 34

7. ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................. 38

8. CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................... 46

REFERENCES................................................................................................................ 49



FIGURES AND TABLES

FIGURES

Figure 6.1 Standard I – VII Enrolment in Primary Schools, 1995 – 2005. s.13

Figure 6.2 Total Enrolment, Population and Enrolment Ratios (GER and NER) in Primary Schools, 1995 –

2005. s. 14

Figure 6.3 Budgetary Allocation to Education Sector by Education levels 1995/96 – 2004/05 s. 16

TABLES

Table 6.1 Primary Schools Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) by Sex and Gender Parity Index (GPI), 1995-2005.

s. 15

Table 6.2 Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), Results 1998 – 2004. s. 15

Table 6.3 Females Enrolment as Percentage of Total Enrolment by Grade and Level in Primary Education.

s. 16

Table 6.4 Pupil Teacher Ratio 1999-2004. s. 17

Table 6.5 PEDP Enrolment Related Targets 2002-2006. s. 17



1. INTRODUCTION

Around the world today there are about 100 million children who do not have the

opportunity to attend primary school (Development Gateway 2004). In the year 1990

United Nations declared eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and these goals

are supposed to be fulfilled in the year 2015. The second MDG is “Achieve universal

primary education – Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in

difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and

complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality” (United Nations

Statistics Division 2006). The same year a conference was arranged in Jomtien, Thailand.

About 150 representatives from countries and organizations all over the world came

together and held the World Conference on Education for All. The main goals were touniversalize the primary education and decrease the illiteracy worldwide before the new

decade was entered (UNESCO 2001). In the year 2000, i.e. ten years later, the World

Education Forum was held in Dakar, Senegal. The forum was a follow up from the

Jomtien-conference. The forum members introduced the concept Dakar Framework for

Action and the main goal to achieve Education for All at year 2015. The co-ordination of

all international players was handed over to UNESCO (UNESCO 2000, p. 3).

In Sub-Saharan Africa it is estimated that only 60 percent of boys and 56 percent of girls

attend school. “It is education that will provide the next generation with the tools to fight

poverty and conquer disease” (UNICEF 2006). Consequently, with the low outcome of

educated people it is almost impossible to eradicate poverty. HIV/AIDS, malaria e.g. are

well-known diseases that have a negative relation to schooling.

User fees for primary education have been a part of the structural adjustment program

package that IMF and World Bank once introduced. Children going to school are one

step in the direction to fight poverty and to save lives. In the year 2000 the U.S. Congress

stated with a policy that projects and loans from organizations like IMF and World Bank,

which include the advocacy of user fees, should come to an end (Robert Weissman

2000).

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1.2 Background

In the end of 2001 the school fees of primary school were abolished by the Tanzanian

Government (UNESCO 2003). A policy was founded in 1995 to improve education and

training in Tanzania. This policy, the Education and Training Policy (ETP), was theguiding principle for the whole educational system (ESDP, April 2003). In 1999 the

Tanzanian Government introduced a first version of an Education Sector Development

Programme (ESDP). The previous policies and plans that had been formulated were now

to be implemented by the Tanzanian Government.

” It’s overall objective is to provide for increased gender-balanced and equitable access

to higher quality basic education with the following priorities: i) priority on basic

education; ii) improvement in secondary school opportunities; iii) demand-driven and

marketoriented post-secondary and higher education; and iv) institutional development

to improve sector management and to strengthen capacity to monitor progress.” (URT

2002, p. 11).

A constituent of the ESDP is the Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP). The

purpose with PEDP is to expand the enrolment and improve the quality. (ESDP, April

2003). Sweden has supported Tanzania with aid in more than 40 years and education has

been a priority area for Sida in the development cooperation with Tanzania (Sida 2006).

Anders Närman points out that: “There is an absolute relationship between a quantitativeexpansion and the ability to uphold quality. One obvious expression of this relationship is

the need for qualified teachers in the schools.” (Närman and Ewald. 2001, p. 325).

1.3 Purpose and delimitations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine different educational actors’ view to what extent

the quality of education has been affected since the abolishment of the school fees in

primary school. The following questions have been formulated for this study:

- What have been the effects on the primary education of the abolishment of the

school fees?

- What are the different educational actors’ views about the quality of education in


2





The main focus for our thesis will be on the primary school sector in Tanzania. This

study is not limited to a particular region or district, thus we have a view of Tanzania in

general.

How the abolishment of the school fees affects the international development cooperation

and its work will not be considered. Similarly we do not intend to discuss the abolishment

of school fees in the democracy aspect. Gender is a major issue itself and will therefore

not be entirely analyzed; however it will be taken under consideration. We think that the

concept of quality might differ between the actors. We also have decided to examine the

quality concept within the context of primary education in Tanzania.

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The theoretical framework will be based on discussion about the concept of quality of

education. It will be impossible for us to include all the different views of this subject in

our thesis. We have therefore chosen to present the views on quality of education that is

most relevant according to us. We have found a lot of research that emphasize the

importance of educated and satisfied teachers as well as good school environment.

Therefore the theoretical framework is divided into two parts, quality of the teachers and

quality of the environment in primary schools.

2.1 Quality of the teachers

Dr. Joan Freeman works at the Institute of Education at University of London and

received her doctorate in child psychology from the University of Manchester, United

Kingdom. Freeman has been writing numerous of books and scientific papers regarding

the area of the quality of education.

Freeman stresses the teacher’s role for high quality in education. Freeman accentuates the

importance of teachers for high quality in education for children to be able to join the

society. The goal should be a higher quality for all rather than a sense of equal

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opportunity for all. Freeman believes that a sense of equal opportunity for all is a vague

idea with no specified standards (Freeman 1992, p. 175).

Freeman points out that around the world teachers are questioning their profession due to

lack of respect. The consequence of this is that teacher’s ability to produce new ideas

starts to decrease and they feel that they approach the “back to basics”. Freeman stresses

that when teachers in the classroom get hold of professional competence it is a starting

point in educating children and improving their competence. Another factor that Freeman

mentions is the teacher salaries. Higher salaries are not always the right solution for

encouraging teachers to keep on working, but of course there are parts in the world where

teachers are poorly paid, the living condition can affect their satisfaction. The living

condition for teachers can vary but there are situations where they have to live in houses

with leaking roofs, dirty washrooms, tattered exercise books etc. (Freeman 1992, p. 176).

2.2 Quality of the environment in primary schools

The UN-organisation UNESCO introduced the EFA 2000 Assessment in order to enable

countries to introduce their own EFA goals. The purpose with EFA is to make sure that

countries can offer basic education (UNESCO 2006).

In the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005 (Colclough et al 2005a, p. 29) put forth two

key elements that define the concept of quality of education:1. The importance that the students are being able to improve their cognitive

development.

2. The importance that the students are being able to improve their creative and

emotional development.

There have been studies at micro level in development countries that emphasize the

relation between cognitive achievement and school expenditure, teacher education and

school facilities (Colclough et al. 2005b, p. 2). A good medium for student achievement

is a high-level of teacher subject knowledge (Darling-Hammond 2000 cited Colclough et

al 2005a, p.112).

Per Settergren has worked both as a teacher and a school inspector in Stockholm,

Sweden. In Settergrens book “Bättre Skola” a definition of quality in school is put

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together from teacher and principal opinions. That is good characteristics that exist in the

school activity, intended for the pupils and their parents (Settergren 2003, p. 16). We

want to highlight these characteristics as our main guideline in our thesis. The following

characteristics are not in any order of precedence priority:

• Security and comfort

• The ethical foundations of the curriculum

• Pupils influence and responsibility

• Dialogue

• Stimulation of the intellect, imagination and emotion

Security and comfort is a prerequisite and the starting point for a successful school. A

school without security and comfort will in the future not be able to succeed with other

missions. An open and trustful relation between children and adults, pupils and staff in

school is necessary to achieve this. Therefore the teacher’s social competence has a great

significance to create a harmonious working environment (Settergren 2003, p. 17).

The pupils should be fostered according to the ethical foundations of the curriculum.

This is important, so that the pupils respect the teacher and each other. As the teachers are

raw models for their pupils, their behavior has importance in fostering process. The

teacher’s way of greeting their pupils could for example be a part in fostering. The

content of the subject should include the ethical foundation, and that is the componentsthat education is based on (Settergren 2003, p. 18).

Pupils influence and responsibility is another important characteristic. The pupils will

feel more comfortable if they have more influence and given responsibility in their

schoolwork (Settergren 2003, p. 18).

Dialogue with the pupils is the best way to make them participate and also enable them to

gain greater knowledge. The context is often better understood in the dialogue (Settergren

2003, p. 19).

Stimulation of the intellect, imagination and emotion is an important characteristic

that the school must provide for the pupils. If not, the pupils will have a hard time to be

able to develop their capacity to solve difficult assignments. Enthusiastic and

knowledgeable teachers, increases the possibility for transferring the interest to the

5



Our questions in the interview guide are based on our theory, where we aimed at

formulating questions related to the indicators in the theory. In our theory we have five

indicators regarding the classroom situation that we associate with the quality of

education. For every indicator we have included about three or four questions.

We started the interviews with simple questions like for example “What is your position

at your work?” The reason for this is to create a comfortable atmosphere for the

respondent and for ourselves during the interview. After these questions we used “grand-

tour”-questions, which are questions where the respondent can be able to evolve the

answers and express them selves freely. We also used follow up questions in order to

receive more extensive answers. In the end we sometimes used direct questions when we

felt that some information relating to our thesis was missing.

The different sources could contribute with different parts of information that eventually

put the puzzle together (Esaiasson et al. 2005, p. 253). In our view, by interviewing the

relevant people we have attained more up to date information. Furthermore, there is a

possibility to receive information that has not been published. Interviewing several actors

in different positions and organizations will enhance the possibility to get more valid

results.

Both primary and secondary sources have been used (Björk 2003, p. 231). For the

primary sources, we have interviewed a program officer at Sida, a primary school teacher

and the head of education and training department at TTU. The interviews took place

during our three weeks visit in Tanzania in April 2006. Secondary sources have been

used and this includes information from the Internet, academic literature, newspaper,

journal articles etc.

An important tool we used during the interviews was a tape recorder. This helped us to

once again go back and find important information (Esaiasson et al. 2005, p. 294). During

the interview we also took notes which we soon afterwards put together while we still

had the information up to date. This will increase the reliability of the thesis.

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3.1 Valuation of the sources

The authors Freeman and Settergren in our theoretical framework both have

comprehensive experience from the field of education. Freeman holds a doctor degree in

child psychology and has many years of experience as a teacher. Settergren is a teacher and has worked as a school inspector for many years. We want to stress that there is a lot

of literature and researches regarding quality of education that have not been covered.

Therefore there is a possibility that important theories have not been reflected.

Regarding the interviews there is always a risk for misunderstandings, not at least when a

foreign language is used. The interview with the teacher and the employee at TTU is

likely to be more critical to the Governments ways of treating teachers compared to

someone who is independent. Therefore it is possible that they enhance some parts more

than others. The interview with the employee at Sida could also have some obligations in

his role as a donor. The Tanzanian NGO, HakiElimu, has the capacity as an NGO to be

critical towards the Government.

When it comes to sources from the Internet one should know that anyone can present

information in anyway they want. Therefore we carefully have examined the sources.

4. PREVIOUS RESEARCHThere are numerous studies carried out regarding the quality of education and the effects

of school fees. Since we are concentrating on Tanzania in general, it is interesting to get a

perspective with a closer look on researches done at a district level.

Beniamin Knutsson is a student at Växjö University in Sweden and did his master’s

degree in Peace and Development at School of Social Sciences. The topic for his thesis is

“Education for All or Enrolment for All?” Knutsson did his research in the Geita district

in Tanzania during the spring 2005 and his aim with the thesis was to see what

implementation efforts with EFA could achieve in a Tanzanian context. His specific

objective is “to examine how a substantial quantitative expansion of pupil enrolment

affects primary school education in qualitative terms.” In Knutssons conclusion in

general there have been several changes being done in a positive way but the negative

approach is more noticeable. The positive improvements that have been done is for

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example building of new classrooms, more ownership in the communities, more

availability of books, more children attending to schools and the drop-out rate is moving

down. The PEDP has been criticized among the respondents and the way it has been

used. The lack of infrastructure is one main problem of the increasing number of children

in schools. Knutsson also mention that there is an imbalance regarding the recruitment of

teachers from the geographic point of view. Teachers in village schools obtain other

problems relating to the increase of enrolment. In technical and practical subjects like

science, there is a lack of material resources that comes with the enrolment. There has

also been an increase of repetitions in Std. 1-4. Knutsson points out in the main

conclusion that “Geita is still far from the global EFA target of UPE with good quality,

but they are close to Enrolment for all but hardly to Education for all”.

Ms. Dinah Richard Mmbaga carried out a PhD dissertation titled, “The Inclusive

Classroom in Tanzania – Dream or Reality?” at Stockholm University and Institute of

International Education. The case study was done during a four year period between 1996

and 1999. Mmbaga did her study research in Kazimkazi primary school at Same District,

Kilimanjaro Region. The study was about challenges to basic education in Tanzania and

about learning, especially about the relationships between teachers and pupils in the

classroom and if the relationships created in the classroom enhanced or constrained

effective learning. The views of teachers, parents and children were studied as well as the

macro context. The results show that policies and organizational structures are very

important for creating good conditions for learning. The curriculum in primary school

was not in line with the local reality. The teaching in the school was far from satisfying

perhaps due to the pressure of large classes and to complete syllabuses in time to the final

exams. According to the results, the children in school were given different labels and the

ones referred to as “problem children” were often given less attention. The author suggest

that some criteria must be fulfilled if effective learning is going to take place; Better

communication between teachers and parents. Before reforms and changes are introduced

thorough preparation is needed in order to make sure that all parties are aware of their

new roles. The reality of the local community must be taken into account when the

9



curriculum is appointed. Mmbaga ends the conclusion with the words “Indeed, inclusion

is no more a dream. However, it is far from becoming a reality” (Mmbaga 2002, p. 201).

With our study we want to contribute to the research on education in Tanzania. Neither of

the authors named above has been discussing the abolishment of school fees in the way

we intend to do. Before presenting our empirical material, a short presentation of

Tanzania will follow.

5. TANZANIA

Tanzania is situated in eastern Africa bordering the Indian Ocean and its neighbor

countries are Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia,

Malawi and Mozambique. Tanzania is divided into 26 regions and the capital city is

Dodoma but Dar es Salaam is still a central and an important city for ministries and other

offices. The population is estimated to 37.5 million people. The age structure of the

population is; 0 to 14 years 43.7 %, 15 to 64 years 53.6 % and 65 and above 2.6 %.

Swahili and English is the official languages and literacy among the population regarding

male is 85.9 % and female 70.7 % (CIA 2006).

5.1 History

Tanganyika and Zanzibar became a union in 1964 and formed the United Republic of

Tanzania. From the year 1945 Tanganyika belonged to United Nations Trusteeship under

British rule and became independent in 1961. The development of TANU (Tanganyika

African National Union) became the first party in the 1950s and in 1960s they won the

political trust of the people. A year after independence, “Mwalimu” Julius Kambarage

Nyerere became the first prime minister in Tanganyika (Tanzania Government, 2006).

Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born in 1922. “Mwalimu” Nyerere started his career as a

teacher and later on he became a politician and founder member of the TANU. He was

also the founder member and chairman of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). CCM was a

fusion of TANU and Afro-Shiraz Party of Zanzibar which was formed in 1977. The word

“Mwalimu” is the Swahili word for teacher. Nyerere went to Makerere University in

Uganda and received a Teacher Diploma and he also received a Master of Arts degree at

10



Edinburgh University in Scotland. The respect of Nyerere is the reason why he today is

honored as the “Mwalimu” and as the father of the nation. Between 1964 and 1985

“Mwalimu” Nyerere held the post as the president for the Republic of Tanzania (South

Centre 2006).

The time Nyerere became president in 1964, Tanzania had major problems and he had a

tough assignment to get his country back on track, which was in deep crisis and was one

of the poorest countries in the world. His strategy was to introduce socialism and

communal life. This socialism was a mixture of agriculture, villigization (“Ujamaa”) and

large-scale nationalization. The word “Ujamaa” became an important strategy for

Nyerere. “Ujamaa” is the Kiswahili word for family hood and Nyerere wanted his people

to live and work in a co-operative way so it could extend the traditional values and

responsibilities in Tanzania. Nyerere believed in his new socialism which he said was

“people-centered”. Health, education and political identity were some areas that

succeeded when it was focused on human development and self-reliance. Nyerere had

two main headings regarding his educational philosophy and it was education for self-

reliance and adult education and lifelong learning and education for liberation. In

Nyerere’s vision “Education for Self-Reliance” he stated that education should promote

equality, foster co-operation and to work for the common good. He also stated that when

planning and decision-making process should be done, it has to engage both teachers and

students. Some of the educational reforms succeeded and some failed. Nyerere gave up

the Presidency in 1985 and he died in London on 14 October 1999 (Hartford Web

Publishing 2006).

After Nyerere’s retirement in 1985, Ali Hassan Mwinyi became the new president of

Tanzania. Mwinyi was against the socialism that Nyerere once introduced and was more

into private sector development and relaxed on import restrictions. Between 1990 and

1995 he also became chairman of the ruling party CCM (Answers 2006). In the

beginning of the 1980s Tanzania liberalized its economy and in 1986 an agreement was

signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Tanzania introduced the structural

adjustment program (SAP) after the agreement with IMF and the World Bank.

After being at the presidency during two terms, Ali Hussein Mwinyi was succeeded by

Benjamin William Mkapa in 1995. Mkapa continued with the liberalization of the

11



economy and privatized most of the state owned corporations under his presidency. Even

he became the chairman for CCM during his time as president. In 1995 Tanzania

introduced the multiparty system but CCM still have the majority of the votes (Wikipedia

2006). In December 2005 Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete became the fourth president of

Tanzania and the chairman of CCM.

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6. EMPIRICAL CHAPTER

The empirical chapter starts with a presentation of statistical data regarding the primary

education in Tanzania. The next part is the interviews. The answers from the respondents

and the informant have been put together according to the related questions that we

asked. Thereafter follows a presentation of the Tanzanian Government Education and

Training policies. At last we presented some thoughts from the Tanzanian NGO

HakiElimu.

6.1 Case of Statistics

The statistical data includes figures and tables and gives a clearer picture regarding the

primary education.

0 1000000 2000000 3000000

4000000 5000000 6000000 7000000 8000000

Pupils

Enrolment 3877643 3942888 4057965 4042568 4189816 4382410 4881588 5981338 6562772 7083063 7541208

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Figure 6.1 Standard I – VII Enrolment in Primary Schools, 1995 – 2005

Source: Ministry of Education and Culture (2005b)

The chart above shows that the increase of pupils enrolled in primary school had its peak

with about 1.1 million children in year 2002. In the end of 2001 the Government

abolished the school fees in primary school. It has been followed by a steady increase

since then. Between the year 1995 and 2005 the enrolment nearly doubled.

13



Figure 6.2 Total Enrolment, Population and Enrolment Ratios (GER and NER) in

Primary Schools, 1995 - 2005

Total Enrolment, Population and Enrolment Ratios (GER and NER) in

Primary Schools, 1995 - 2005

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

G E R & N E R

NER 55,4 56,3 56,7 56,7 57,1 58,6 66,0 80,7 88,5 90,5 94,8

GER 77,6 77,8 77,9 76,6 77,2 77,6 84,4 98,6 105,3 106,3 109,9

year 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Tot. Gd I-

VII

3 877 643 3 942 888 4 057 965 4 042 568 4 189 816 4 382 410 4 845 185 5 972 077 6 562 772 7 083 063 7 541 208

Pop 7-

13yrs

4996963 5 067 979 5 209 198 5 279 500 5 427 156 5 646 293 5 743 255 6 054 257 6 229 830 6 665 347 6 859 282

7-13yrs in

Gd I-VII

2 768 317 2 853

272

2 953

615

2 994 027 3 098

846

3 309 977 3 790 622 4 884 385 5 515 793 6 034 526 6 499 581


NER stands for Net Enrolment Ratio and is the number of pupils in the official age group

for a given level of education enrolled in that level expressed as a percentage of the total

population in that age group. GER stands for Gross Enrolment Ratio and is the number of

pupils enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as percentage

of the population in relevant official age group.

In the year 2005 the NER was 94.8 percent and if the trend continues they will reach 100

percent within a couple of years. The GER has since the year 2003 exceeded 100 percent

indicating that there are overage pupils enrolled in primary school. Between the year

2000 and 2005 the NER has increased with 36 percent units which is a remarkable

change in such a short time period.

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Table 6.1 Primary Schools Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) by Sex and Gender Parity Index

(GPI), 1995-2005


Year Male Female Total GPI

1995 55,9 54,8 55,4 0,98

1996 55,9 56,7 56,3 1,01

1997 58,1 57,2 56,7 0,98

1998 56,0 57,3 56,7 1,02

1999 56,4 57,8 57,1 1,02

2000 58,6 59,1 58,8 1,01

2001 65,8 65,2 65,5 0,99

2002 82,1 79,3 80,7 0,97

2003 90,4 86,7 88,5 0,96

2004 91,4 89,7 90,5 0,98

2005 95,6 93,9 94,8 0,98

The table above shows that the relation between boys and girls has been fairly equal since

1995. It is noticeable that the proportion of girls has decreased somewhat in the last five

years. In 1996 and the period between 1998 and 2000 there were more girls than boys

enrolled in primary schools.

Table 6.2 Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), Results 1998 – 2004.

Source: HakiElimu (2003)

Year Candidates Sat Passed % Passed1998 364,014 77,444 21,3

1999 426,569 82,419 19,3

2000 389,746 85,576 22,0

2001 444,903 127,351 28,6

2002 492,472 133,674 27,1

2003 490,018 196,273 40,1

2004 499,241 243,045 48,7

The table above presents the results from the primary school leaving examination.

Between the year 2002 and 2003 there is prominent improvement of the pass rate where

there is an increase of 48 percent. In 2004 the examination results has increased with

about 130 percent compared to the year 1998. In 2003 a reform was implemented

regarding the examination tests. Mathematics was given less importance while languages

15



on the other hand were given more significance. Traditionally the primary school pupils

have performed better in languages.

Table 6.3 Females Enrolment as Percentage of Total Enrolment by Grade and Level in

Primary Education


EDUCATIONAL LEVEL 1982 1987 1992 2003 2005

STD I 50,1 48,5 48,6 48,5 49,6

STD VII 44,5 50,4 49,3 49,9 48,8

STD I - VII 48,3 49,8 49,1 48,7 48,9

The table above presents that the proportion of girls have been fairly even since 1982.

However, this does not say anything about the equality in the classroom.

Figure 6.3 Budgetary Allocation to Education Sector by Education levels 1995/96 –

2004/05

0

100 000

200 000

300 000

400 000

500 000

600 000

Financial year

Mill. Shs.

Education Sector 76 504 92 631 102 343 107 457 138 583 218 051 323 864 396 780 487 729 504 745

Primary & Non- Formal 51 602 63 519 68 896 78 000 92 845 144 658 236 618 289 718 361 425 322 196

Secondary Educ 6 608 7 838 7 894 7 857 10 492 21 453 24 359 29 876 32 464 92 045

Teacher Educ. 1 458 1 954 2 639 2 600 2 752 5 261 5 872 6 646 7 700 6 189 Tertiary and Higher Educ. 16 836 19 320 22 914 19 000 32 494 46 679 57 015 70 540 86 140 84 315

1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05


The chart above shows that the amount of money allocated to the educational sector has

increased steadily during the last ten years. The same could be said about the money

16



transferred to the primary school sector apart from the year 2004/05 when there was a

decrease compared to the previous year.

Table 6.4 Pupil Teacher Ratio 1999-2004

Year Number of Pupils Number of Teachers Pupil Teacher Ratio

1999 4,182,677 103,731 40:1

2000 4,370,500 107,111 41:1

2001 4,875,764 105,921 46:1

2002 5,960,368 112,109 53:1

2003 6,531,769 114,660 57:1

2004 7,041,829 119,773 59:1

Source: HakiElimu (2004)

We can see in the table that the number of pupils per teacher has increased with almost50 percent since 1999. This indicates that the recruitment of new teachers has not been

able to keep up with the enrolment expansion.

Table 6.5 PEDP Enrolment Related Targets 2002-2006

Year Std 1 admissions New teacher recruitments New classroom

construction

2002 1,500,000 9,047 13,868

2003 1,600,000 11,651 13,3962004 1,640,969 10,563 14,203

2005 1,041,880 7,286 6,794

2006 1,065,843 7,249 5,832

Totals 6,848,692 45,796 54,093Source: HakiElimu (2003)

The table above shows that the recruitment of teachers has decreased in the last two

years. It is striking that there has been more classrooms built compared to the recruitment

of teachers.

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6.2 Case of Tanzania Government - Education and Training Policy

This chapter presents an extract from the Education and Training Policy (ETP) that was

published in 1995 by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Tanzanian

Government. The first part of this chapter will present the history and background of the

Education and Training Policy. The structure in this part is divided into different

headlines which are taken from the ETP. In the second part it will concentrate on the

outcome from what the policy is saying regarding the quality of the primary school. In

the third part there will be a short overview of the ESDP and a more detailed presentation

of the PEDP.

6.2.1 History and background of the policy

Education in Tanzanians intend for strengthening its good citizenship, the acquisition of

life skills and the perpetuation of valued customs and traditions. In the year 1962, after

independence, the first Education Act passed and it replaced the Education Ordinance

from year 1927 (MoEC 1995, s. i).

After the Education Act of 1962 was introduced, there were several acts that passed. The

Education Act of 1969, the Decentralization Program of 1972, the National Examinations

Council Act No. 21 of 1973, the Universal Primary Education and the Musoma

Resolution in 1974, the Institute of adult Education Act No. 12 of 1975 and the Institute

of Education Act No. 13 of 1975. These acts were involved to change laws and to

constitute different actions from the outcome at the Arusha Declaration in 1967 with the

Education on Self-Reliance (ESR) (MoEC 1995, s. ii). Education Act No. 25 was passed

in the year 1978 and the purpose for this was to legalize those changes in the education

from the outcome of the acts between 1967 and 1978 (MoEC 1995, s. iv). A review of the

existing education system was done in the year 1981 and a Presidential Commission on

Education was appointed. This review was mentioned to assure that the policies were

heading in the right direction towards the year 2000 (MoEC 1995, s. vi). A National Task

Force on Education was constituted by the Tanzanian Government in the year 1990. This

National Task Force was introduced to review, prepare and make the Education System

suitable for the 21st Century. The outcome of the report from the Task Force should be

18



used for consideration and recommendation when formulating the Tanzania Education

and Training Policy (TETP).

“All changes in education between 1961 to-date were aimed at improving the quality of

education and strengthening the link between education provided at all levels and social

and economic development of Tanzania” (MoEC 1995, s. vii-viii).

There are eight main objectives that deal with formal and non-formal education in

Tanzania at all levels, and these are quoted from the ETP (MoEC 1995, s. xi-xiii):

• Enhancement of partnership in the provision of education and training, through

the deliberate efforts of encouraging private agencies to participate in the

provision of education, to establish and manage schools and other educational

institutions at all levels.

• Identification of critical priority areas to concentrate on, for the purpose of

creating an enabling environment for private agencies to participate in the

provision of education, such as, the training of more and better teachers.

• Broadening of the financial base for education and training, through more

effective control of government spending, cost sharing and liberalization

strategies.• Streamlining of the management structure of education, by placing more authority

and responsibility on schools, local communities, districts and regions.

• Emphasizing the provision of quality education, through curriculum review,

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 point’s knowledge comparability and inter-mobility within the sub-

sectors of education.

• Increasing access to education, by focusing on the equity issue with respect to

women, disadvantaged groups and areas in the country.

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• Facilitating the growth of the culture of education-for-job-creation and self

employment through increased availability of opportunities for vocational

education and training.

6.2.2 Main aims and objectives

The first chapter in the ETP contains the main aims and objectives regarding education

and training in general. It points out that the primary school is of great importance. At

primary school the children begin to strengthen themselves both ethically and morally,

and the socio-cultural foundation is being laid for the Tanzanian people and the nation.

The primary education is where children receive their basic skills to advance in to

secondary school and to higher education. Scientific and technological literacy and

capacity are factors that ETP points out are of importance for personal and nationaldevelopment (MoEC 1995, s. 4-5).

6.2.3 System and structure of education and training

The second chapter points out how the system and the structure of education are working.

Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher

Education and the Prime Minister’s Office (Department of Regional Administration and

Local Government) are the main ministries and where education is undertaken with other

ministries (MoEC 1995, s. 11). The coordination of the ministries, the Non-

Governmental Organizations, communities and individuals are involved concerning the

formal and non-formal education. The primary school in Tanzania is a seven year

education and it is compulsory in enrollment and attendance (MoEC 1995, s. 13).

6.2.4 Access and equity

Access to education for people and the equity of the resources should be distributed and

allocated in a fair way. The improvement of the quality of education and training is now

the biggest issue. The education is expanding and to meet the demands, it has to provide

these services. It also means that the average per capita education cost is increasing and

that has to be controlled and that the capital will flow into the sector (MoEC 1995, s. 17).

The Government has stated that access to primary education should be a basic right and

at the age of seven. All children shall go to school because primary education is universal

20



and compulsory and that they will attend and fulfill the education (MoEC 1995, s. 18).

Primary education should allow more girls to have access to school. Girls attending

school starts raising slowly and due to this the family traditions differ through the nation.

This means that in some families girls get married and pregnant at a very young age. This

is some of the reasons why the drop-out rates for girls are so high (MoEC 1995, s. 19).

The curriculum, textbooks and classroom practices should help with the eradication of

gender stereotyping in the education and school system. (MoEC 1995, s. 20).

6.2.5 Management and administration

The ETP says that the management and administration in the school system are vital to

achieve good quality in education and training. At the moment there are several

ministries, parastatal organizations and NGOs who are responsible for the managementand therefore a review must be done, because the coordination in education and training

is not working as an institutional mechanism (MoEC 1995, s. 23). The Government

always got the monopoly over the provision and management of formal school. A need of

greater coordination and liberalization, expansion and qualitative improvements has been

envisaged regarding the primary school. There is a need of a decentralized management

(MoEC 1995, s. 25). The districts, regions and the communities in Tanzania have been

asking to get more power of the administration and management within their areas of

jurisdiction. There is also a need of more educational institutions when the education

management system is being decentralized (MoEC 1995, s. 26).

School inspection is a useful method for monitoring the school system. The use of

inspectors in order to overview curriculums, the delivery of education and monitor that

education is being efficient and that the quality is considered (MoEC 1995, s. 30).

The quality of the teaching force is an important aspect regarding the quality of

education. The working conditions are of huge importance so that teachers can perform

and be satisfied what they are doing. Problems for the teaching force do exist in

Tanzania. The salaries are low and irregular, lack of proper housing; inadequate teaching

facilities and the teacher status is low among other. The Government must review the

terms of service and working conditions for all teachers. Teachers should also be

21



registered and licensed and that they have a professional qualification (MoEC 1995, s.

31-32).

6.2.6 Formal education and training

The primary school system starts with Standard One and ends with Standard Seven. At

primary school the pupils get hold of vital life qualities from an ethical and moral point of

view (MoEC 1995, s. 35-36). When Tanzania introduced “Education for All” the schools

expanded and the enrollment started to rise. The dependence on the Government is still

high when speaking about the establishment, financing and management.

Children at primary school age should all be enrolled and attended to school. There is

also a requirement of better school facilities such as desks, educational equipment,

libraries and instructional materials and these are vital requirements for good qualityeducation. The ETP point out the lack of exercise books, textbooks and teachers’ guides

is a major problem in the primary schools (MoEC 1995, s. 37-38).

The minimum to become a qualified primary school teacher is a valid Grade A Teacher

Education Certificate. The lessons should be held in Kiswahili and English will be a

compulsory subject (MoEC 1995, s. 38). There is a need of new teachers colleges. This is

because of the increasing enrollment in primary school and there is a need of new

teachers. The problem is that the Government can not afford to build new colleges

(MoEC 1995, s. 46-47). The teachers’ quality and professional competence are factors

that are important regarding the efficiency and improving the quality at primary

education. The entry qualifications must therefore be raised by the Government (MoEC

1995, s. 48).

6.2.7 School curricula, examinations and certification

The existence of a curriculum in the school system is a must. Curriculum has four

dimensions: the aims and objectives dimension, subject matter dimension, activitiesdimension and assessment dimension. The curriculum should include and concentrate on

the teaching of languages, science and technology, humanities and life skills. Language is

vital for everyone to communicate and this is where the access to cognitive skills,

knowledge, technologies, attitudes and values can be obtained. Kiswahili and English

should be encouraged throughout the education system. Science and technology are

22



important subjects regarding the socio-economic development for countries like Tanzania

(MoEC 1995, s. 52). Skills in carpentry, crop and livestock husbandry, pottery making,

smithing (act or art of working or forging metals), masonry (stonework), painting, home

economics and technical skills should be included in the curriculum. This is for

strengthen the basic life skills for the Tanzanian people (MoEC 1995, s. 54).

In the primary school in Tanzania there are two examinations, at end of Std. IV and Std.

VII. In the first examination at Std. IV it is meant to measure the ability of the pupils to

handle the three Rs, (reading, ´riting and ´rithematic). The results from the examinations

can therefore be used for promotion and repetition. The examination in the end of Std.

VII is the leaving examination and where pupils get selected to advance for secondary

education. All the results from the leaving examinations in primary school should be

certified and be public (MoEC 1995, s. 58).

6.2.8 ESDP

When the ETP was published in 1995 there was a need of a review of the education

sector before entering the 21st century. The Government adopted a sector-wide approach

and therefore the ESDP was introduced. The ESDP is a mixture of different actors, like

key stakeholders, using pooled human, financial and material resources. The actors

should therefore work with planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the

education sector. The aim of this assemble is to strengthen the ownership and to promote

partnership where people are involved with education. The ESDP is therefore using the

ETP objectives (BEDC 2001, s. 3).

6.2.9 PEDP

The Primary Education Development Plan is a constituent of the ESDP and has four main

strategic priorities: enrolment expansion, quality improvement , capacity building and

optimizing human material and financial resource utilization (BEDC 2001, s. 4).Enrolment expansion is the most important target in the PEDP. One of the strategies is to

abolish the school fees. The plan is to recruit new teachers and build new classrooms as

well as use existing teachers and classrooms in a more effective way. The PTR should be

45:1 (BEDC 2001, s. 4-5).

23



Regarding the quality improvement there are three main components. These are to

improve the teachers’ way of teaching in the classroom, availability of materials and

maintaining support for educational standards (BEDC 2001, s. 9).

Capacity building is the third policy that should be strengthened. The most important

factors regarding this issue are the decentralization process and increasing the efficiency

in the different Governmental institutions (BEDC 2001, s. 11).

The fourth and the last policy in the PEDP contain reforms to improve the human and

material aspects (BEDC 2001, s. 15).

6.3 Case of the interviews

This chapter presents the information from the three interviews. This information has

been sorted on the basis of our questions. This will make it easier for the reader to get an

overview. We have also chosen to add some quotations we find significant. Here follows

a short presentation of the people we interviewed.

The primary school teacher we interviewed teaches in a governmental school in Dar es

Salaam. The teacher’s own education comprises secondary school up to form four at

Kibaha and an received a “Education Diploma” at MANTEP college in Bagamoyo.

MANTEP is a two year course called Management Administration Training EducationPersonnel Institute.

Anthony Mtavangu work at Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) as the head of education and

training department. The organization was founded in November 1993 and there is about

135 000 members. The overall objective for the organization is to protect the member’s

rights, social welfare and their professional integrity. TTU also advocate for quality of

education and work as a “watchdog”.

The third interview was with Hans Persson who is working as a senior program officer at

the Swedish Embassy in Dar es Salaam. He has been working for Sida since august 2003

with these questions related to education.

24



What is the pupil/teacher-rate in Tanzania now? Has the pupil/teacher-rate changed

in the last ten years and what do you think the reasons are for this?

Anthony Mtavangu states that the average ratio in PTR is 1:57 right now. Mtavangu says

that there is other information collected from the field showing that situation varies from

school to school and at some places, it is 75:1 up to 250:1. He said that “ The teacher-

pupil rate is better now than ten years ago when it was above 1:80”.

Hans Persson explains that average figures are derived from the number of pupils

scattered on all the teachers which means that in the classroom there are actually more

pupils per teacher. In highly populated areas there are often more than 100 pupils. He

points out that “This says something about what kind of teaching that can take place

under such circumstances”.1

The reason for the high enrolment rates is the abolishment of school fees according to the

primary school teacher. The teacher also states that it is not only that they have removed

the school fees; primary school is now compulsory education. The teacher points out that

the effect of the abolishment of the school fees is that the classrooms now are so crowded

that it is hard for teachers to manage the classrooms. This is because the number of

required teachers is not equal to the amount of children.

Anthony Mtavangu believes that the pupil-teacher rate has changed to the better

compared to ten years ago and the reason for this is the adoption of PEDP and the

massive production of new teachers. In order to remedy the situation the Government

embarked on a program with the aim to change the teacher training from two years

fulltime to one year fulltime in order to increase the number of teachers. Instead they

introduced a mentorship program where mentors from Tanzanian collages where

supposed to visit the new teachers. However the mentorship was a failure. Mtavangu said

to us “it didn’t work in practice and in this program quantity was at expense of quality.”

Furthermore, Mtavangu mentioned that the increase of new teachers has not been able to

cover the increase of enrolled pupils. Right now there is a shortage of 130 000 teachers in

total and in primary school the amount is 30 000 teachers missing.

1 ”Det säger någonting om vilken typ av undervisning som kan äga rum under sådana förhållanden”translated from Swedish by the authors Patrick Lundqvist and Erik Björkdahl.

25



Have you noticed any change regarding the distribution between boys and girls in

the last couple of years?

The primary school teacher told us that roughly half of the numbers of students are girls

at the school, i.e. the school where the teacher work.

Mtavangu said that the gender balance has changed in primary school since the

abolishment so that there are more girls in school before and becoming fifty-fifty, and the

situations have improved a lot.

Persson says the balance in number between boys and girls has been relatively good in

Tanzania for quite some time and the figures are something like 49/51 percent. In

Tanzania girls are more needed in the daily support for the family’s survival and that the

parents are less willing in releasing the girls to school because they are more vulnerable

than boys. It is more likely that they might get pregnant if they go to school for example.

Another explanation is that, at least in some parts in Tanzania, the girls are forced into

marriage in early ages and must drop out of school. This is important questions that Hans

Persson and others like UNICEF and HakiElimu run, i.e. there is a possibility for girls to

return to school after the pregnancy.

How do teachers and students interact with each other and do the students get any

kind of feedback?

The primary school teacher said that teachers try to interact with the students like visiting

the children in class and follow up their work in the exercise books. Although the teacher

consider it is hard because the time is short and there are so many children. The teacher

also states that they give students feedback in the way that their examination reports are

given to their parents and in that way parents sees their children’s performance.

Mtavangu says that “dialogue is impossible and one of the major challenges”. This is

because the method of teaching is very teacher centered. That learning is predominated

by the teacher talk, and therefore they are not actually in a position to freely express their

ideas. It all depends on what they get from the teacher and the books and for this kind of

learning is more a knowledge transmission. There is no feedback more than that the

teacher expect their students to reproduce the knowledge according to Mtavangu.

26



Are the students involved in the planning of schedule, content of subjects, etc.? Does

pupils’ council exist?

Both the primary school teacher and Mtavangu state that the pupils never are involved in

the planning of things like the schedule or content of different subjects etc.

The teacher said “actually we as teachers are not participating so much in the planning,

because the syllabus is set from above. We just receive it and do what we are told. It is all

centralized.”

The teacher and Mtavangu say that the only pupils who are involved are the ones chosen

as prefects. The prefects are acting like monitors and assist the classroom teacher to take

care of the discipline in the classroom. Mtavangu further explains that the prefects are

elected from classes in the upper grades, mainly from grade 6 and 7 and gender is

considered when they are elected. The prefects are also responsible to make sure that the

other pupils, in the absence of the teacher, are disciplined.

Is there any kind of punishment and what is your opinion about that?

Mtavangu says that corporal punishment exists, and the teacher uses this in order to solve

disciplinary problems. This includes caning and other physical punishment like manual

work. Mtavangu personally believes in a more friendly relationship between pupils and

teachers, where the teacher behaves more as a councelor. Mtavangu further says that it

depends on the change of the mind-set, and the kind of teacher preparation during college

training, pre-service training and also through in-service training.

Has the teacher recruitment been able to keep up with the increase of enrolment of

pupils? Has the burden increased and in what way?

The enrolment rate has increased with 72 percent in comparison to year 2000 and the

number of children in the age of 7-13, that is those who should attend primary school

increased during this time with 21.5 percent according to Persson. The NER in 2005 was

95 percent compared to 58 percent in 2000 and 55 percent in 1995. This reflects that

many children attend primary school today and if this increase continues, Tanzania will

reach a NER of 100 percent. The GER has reached 110 percent which obviously show

27



that there are pupils in primary school that are over-aged. Persson concludes that the

consequence of this is that the recruitment and training of new teachers have not been

able to keep up with the increasing number of new pupils.

The primary school teacher and Mtavangu definitely believe that the burden for the

teachers has increased. The teacher explains that there are a lot of exercise books to mark

since there are so many children in the class. Many teachers have also died from

HIV/AIDS, but it has been compensated by training new teachers. The Government made

a proper measure when changing the training to one year instead of two years, in order to

get more teachers in a short time.

Mtavangu raised another issue. It concerns the inadequate quality of many teachers.

When you are not confident with your teaching because of your professional quality, it

definitely becomes a burden. Mtavangu feels that teacher’s unequal quote makes it

somehow difficult for them to work confidently. HIV/AIDS affect teachers directly if

they are sick but also if they have to take care of family members who are sick or to

attend funerals. Mtavangu means also that the teachers will be affected in a psychological

way if one of their pupils is infected or have lost their parents or guardians, creating a

need of psychological support for the pupil.

Do you know if there has been any change in the school budget? Do you feel that

you have more or less financial resources for school material such as books, desks

etc.?

The primary school teacher finds it positive that the schools have more control of their

budget now. Previously the textbooks were bought by the district education officers but

now the money goes directly to the schools and can be used according to the needs.

Although the teacher points out that only a few schools have enough financial resources

and in Tanzania there are still some schools that do not have enough desks and other

facilities.

Persson on the other hand says that when the schools collected fees they also had a direct

income that they could use on a local level in some extent which they no longer have. But

the fact that the school fees have been abolished is a truth with some modifications. Many

schools requests contributions from parents for different things. Further more, the school

28



requires also that the pupils should have school uniforms which give rise to expenses for

the parents. There could be other indirect costs as well that the parents have to contribute

to. The rapid expansion has given rise to high demand for new classrooms. What have

happened most and for all when it comes to contribution is that assisting in building new

schools have become a common way of contributing for the parents, Persson explains.

The increase of foreign aid in recent years has not covered the missing revenues which

have been the result of the abolishment of school fees in primary school. People are

talking about a financing gap, i.e. the difference between the resources available

according to the PEDP and the resources that actually are available. But many new

schools have been built more or less on voluntary efforts and one interesting thing is that

the value of this is not included in the official figures. The financing gap constitutes by

money from donors or the Government and not the local communities contributions for

example, which Persson really think should be the case, because it is a major contribution

without knowing exactly how large.

Could you say that the salaries for the teaching-staff have changed in any direction

the last couple of years? Has the abolishment of school fees affected teacher

salaries?

The primary school teacher explains that the salaries for the teachers have changed very

little in the last years. Teachers are not satisfied with what they get and still not enough

depending on today’s life.

Mtavangu says that “there is no relationship between abolishment of school fees and the

teacher salaries.” The school fees that are paid by parents do not contribute to the

teachers salaries because the education system is centralized. The salaries come from the

central Government and not from the local community. He also says ”the salaries are not

determined by the economic capacity of the community. The salaries are determined by

the economic position of the country. The government is actually cautious and making the

salaries of the public sector not so different.”

The average monthly salary for a primary school teacher is roughly 80 USD. That is for a

teacher who has completed four years in secondary school plus one or two years in

29



teachers training college. Mtavangu indicate that salaries actually have increased more

than 50 percent compared to the salaries ten years ago.

Do you think the quality of the education has changed? What do you think is

important for improving the quality of the education?

The primary school teacher says that it is hard to say if the quality has deteriorated. The

teacher mentions some improvements, for example the Government has built many

classrooms since the abolishment of the school fees. Many of the children are now able to

sit on desks and are able to work easier than previous, so in some aspects the quality has

improved. The teacher thinks the most important thing in order to improve the quality of

education would be to improve the situation of the teachers. The teachers must be

motivated to work on this tough condition. So far not much have been done for the

teachers according to the primary school teacher.

Mtavangu opens up with the Government point of view which is that the quality of

education has improved. The Government has looked at the passing rate which has

become better; in that point of view there is a change. However Mtavangu is not

convinced that the quality has changed. He explains: “ I think we have to look what

quality means from a much more critical point of view. Passing is not the only measure.

To me it’s not a visionary way of looking what quality means because that is for

selecting. But I feel that quality should be rated for life, I believe that learning is for life

and not for school.”

Mtavangu develops this further by saying that examinations are for the purpose to

determine the selection of pupils and thus learning for school matters. If you look what

they are able to do in life, the quality has not changed according to Mtavangu.

Persson also discussed about the improved examination results. He underlined that he has

a feeling that the improved examination results during the last couple of years not

necessarily depends on an improved education but because of other factors. Persson

explains that the reason for the improved examination results could be that the subjects

are weighed different from earlier or that the examination questions are more simplified

than before to improve the possibility for pupils to pass. The improved results seem

30



peculiar considering the increase of the PTR and the increase of children in the

classrooms.

In addition, the access of textbooks has not increased in the same extent as the amount of

pupils which at least theoretically suggests that this would be reflected in lower

examination results according to Persson.

Approximately 28 percent of the primary school leavers that wrote the exams passed in

2001, while almost 50 percent passed in 2004. Persson stress that the weighing system

has been changed so that subjects like Kiswahili which in general is more easier for the

pupils has been given more importance in the examination. This could explain a part of

the improved examination results. Persson also thinks that the questions might be easier

now which makes it easier to get good results. Persson says that in his perception the

examination system in Tanzania earlier was more of a marginalization system where the

idea was to make sure that the best candidates went to secondary school. In this way they

made sure that only 20 percent had the possibility to apply to the secondary school. The

development is very positive if the objective now is not to fail pupils but to make as

many as possible to feel that they are adequate in the sense that they have passed primary

school, according to Persson.

Persson uses PTR as one indicator of quality of education and in that perspective is not

what you would like it to be, he said. Another element of importance when it comes to

quality, according to Persson, is the access of books. Pupils per book ratio are today

about five or six. Even if this is slightly better than in the beginning of the PEDP, it is

still insufficient if the pupils should have a reasonable possibility to read the content of

the books and not just rely on the teachers’ dictation and notes on the black board,

Persson emphasizes. Another important factor that can affect the quality that Persson

expresses is the in-service training for teachers. He says that it is most common with pre-

service training for teachers while the resources for in-service training seem very limited.

This means that things that could improve the quality such as new ways of teaching and

new curriculums are not highlighted as much as one would like, according to Persson.

Persson mentioned that a large proportion of the teachers in primary school actually do

not really have an own education exceeding the primary school level. In reality they have

gone from primary school to a simple teacher training to become a teacher. They try to

31



cover the gap of competence that exists through in-service training for teachers with a

low academic education. When you talk of in-service training in Tanzania it is mostly

this kind of training they have in mind. Persson think it is unfortunately that the teacher

which already have the basic education but need information and to be stimulated seldom

get in-service training.

Persson explained to us about SACMEQ-project; when it comes to indicators for quality

in education other alternatives have been discussed and there is an initiative called

SACMEQ (Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational

Quality). This is a project started by UNESCO and runs in several countries in Southern

Africa including Tanzania and Zanzibar. SACMEQ use a method where they measure the

pupils knowledge and skills and their ability to do different things. This is an example of

examination that aim at learning outcomes and one of the advantages of this method is

that the questions are designed in a way that the pupil’s short falls comes to light. The

way they think is reflected in the answers. This gives a very good foundation for

influencing the teacher training and the design of textbooks and other such things. This

initiative could have great significance if the Government responded a bit more to it,

according to Persson. Persson continues his discussion about quality to say that it is vital

that the children actually learn something in primary school. He says that there is not

enough of information right now in order to be able to make any certain conclusions. He

concludes by saying that the plan stated objectives like the pupil-book ratio would be 1:1

in 2006 but they are far away from reaching this. It is a reflection of too optimistic

expectations when the plan was designed.

Mtavangu emphasizes the importance of teachers being oriented to participate interactive

in classroom practices which has a social value, an affective domain, a cognitive and

intellectual development. This must also be integrated with love for manual work and it

should not really make the learner feel alienated from manual labor according to

Mtavangu. The reason for this, he says, is that 80 percent of the Tanzanians are in

involvements that actually are more conducive for the participation in manual production.

Mtavangu summarizes by saying that there must be self-reliance in terms of thinking and

in terms of translating practice things into actions. The primary school is too academic

and people are only talking about passing exams according to Mtavangu. Mtavangu stress

32



that if we go on according to this kind of thinking, we come to a point whereby the rural

sector will have people who can not think of having access to other activities than in the

urban areas. The urban areas will be a place where everyone wants to go but there are not

employments for all the people coming from the rural areas and could result in chaos.

Tanzania is not an industrial country and the economic backbone of the nation is still

agriculture. This means that the people must be prepared actually to work with the rural

undertakings and manage them. Furthermore Mtavangu state:

”It’s still a big challenge. I believe that the most important thing for improving the

quality is to review the curriculum. It should be reviewed so that it becomes relevant in

that sense to gear competence building. Those competences should go beyond the major

writing, reading and numerous skills. It has to prepare the learner to become self

confidence in thinking, with the kind of orientation that prepares one to be a creative

learner, a problem solver and of course a good citizen.”

What is your opinion about the abolishment of the school fees?

The primary school teacher finds that the decision to abolish the school fees was a good

move by the Government, making sure that more children go to school.

Mtavangu is also very positive and believes that education is a right for every one and the

doors should be open for every kid and parents should not have to pay school fees.

Persson says that it is a good thing, the number of pupils has increased and that parents

can and want to send their children to school. Although what could be negative about this

is if the rapid expansion is at the cost of what you actually learn in school. Persson says

“then there is a question about finding the right balance between quantity and quality.”

There has been a drastic increase in the enrolment in primary schools in Tanzania and in

that sense the effects of the abolishment of school fees have been positive according to

Persson. On the other hand Persson says that the abolishment of school fees raise many

complicated factors which in turn leads to delays. From the beginning they might have

reckoned this in the plan and anticipated that for example the relation between teachers

and pupils would develop in a negative direction. Also, they probably anticipated this to

be a temporary problem that they soon would settle. But that was not the reality, Persson

ends.

33



6.4 Case of the NGO HakiElimu and their view on PEDP

HakiElimu is a Tanzanian NGO and was founded in 2001 by thirteen Tanzanians from

different strata of the society which all had in common an interest and concern for

improving the education in Tanzania (HakiElimu 2006). The organization is mainly

financed by different donors. During our field course in Tanzania in April 2006, we

visited HakiElimu. The text that follows is an extract from several papers written by

HakiElimu and all of it represents their opinion.

“ HakiElimu´s overall goal is to contribute towards ensuring that every child in Tanzania

– without discrimination – is able to enjoy her or his right to quality basic (primary and

secondary) education. We emphasize that this is not education of any sort, but one that

promotes a culture and practice of human rights, democracy and critical citizenship. In

our conception a good school is children-centred, gender-sensitive and rights respecting.

It is a place where children thrive, where they learn to think and be creative, where they

acquire life skills and self-esteem, and where they are respected and learn to respect

others” (HakiElimu 2006).

When it comes to enrolment, HakiElimu believes that the PEDP is a success althoughthey are concerned about the fact that there are regional differences. For example the

NER in Kilimanjaro is 100 percent compared to 68.2 percent in Tabora (HakiElimu 2005,

p. 2-4). The construction of new classrooms has also been a success even if the

Government falls short to the target that was set up. Schools have more finances than

before and have received more textbooks. However, the TPR have also increased and

lead to overcrowded classrooms. There is still need for more teachers, classrooms and

textbooks. HakiElimu also criticized that the PEDP review of 2004 showed that there had

been little action taken from the Government on a large number of recommendations that

was presented in the PEDP review of 2003 (HakiElimu 2005, p. 18).

HakiElimu believes that there is a need for more attendance data rather than data of

enrolment. The deployment, support and supervision of teachers must be reviewed in

order to attract adequately qualified teachers. The Tanzanian Government decided to

34



reduce the teacher training at the colleges from two years to one. In the second year the

new teachers are posted to schools and are supposed to get supervision from tutors at the

training college. In reality, the new teachers received little support when they were in the

field. Review reports from 2003 and 2004 showed that the new teachers did not get

adequate mentorship from experienced teachers (HakiElimu 2005, p. 13). Today the

status of teachers in Tanzania is very low. The teaching and learning process in the

classroom must be overlooked. The teaching is very teacher-centred and the pupils are

only passive recipients of knowledge. The PEDP has not resulted in any major changes in

this area so far. The schools are still not safe and friendly, especially not for girls

(HakiElimu 2005, p. 19). Various reports has indicated that the full capitation grant

equivalent to US $10 per enrolled child/year often not reach the school level. It is very

important that the flow of funds to the school level is transparent and reliable (Makongo

2003, p. 5). In addition HakiElimu stress that information about policies, entitlements,

obligations and funds should be more available to all. The information should be required

to be displayed on notice boards in all schools etc. The dialogue machinery must also be

improved. Domestic constituencies like civil society organisations and TTU should be

included in a more meaningful way and particular care should be given to establishing

“clear rules of the game” (HakiElimu 2005, p. 20).

HakiElimu analysed in 2003 whether extra funding for primary education is making a

difference. They looked at different aspects like if the measures that is used to measuring

progress in education are the right ones and if the targets are appropriate and feasible.

According to HakiElimu, the large increase in enrolment rates were more likely to be a

cause of abolished school fees and an extensive political campaign to enrol children

rather than increased funding. They also establish that there are no works waiting for the

ones who complete primary or secondary school. Therefore they need to learn other

subjects in school today such as how to solve a problem and think creatively. They have

to be able to analyse the world and evaluate options and create solutions. There is a risk

that additional funding will not improve the learning process and outcomes and only

limited to expansion of infrastructure and enrolment (Rajani and Sumra 2003, p. 4). For

HakiElimu it is quite clear that the increased funding is not being prioritized for the

aspects that matter the most in education (Rajani and Sumra 2003, p. 6).

35



“ In fact the increases in enrolment under PEDP are reported to have led to overcrowding

and chaos, placing an enormous strain on under-motivated and ill-equipped teachers and

further eroding quality of education” (Rajani and Sumra 2003, p. 5).

The teacher recruitment have not been able to keep up with the high enrolment expansion

and there are class sizes of up to 200, or more in some cases, the classes are too big and

the teachers are unable to cope with it. PEDP will create more problems at the school

level if it is not implemented in a more systematic way (Sumra 2003a, p. 2). Rakesh

Rajani who works at HakiElimu writes that overcrowding in fact may have increased the

incidence of corporal punishment (Rajani 2003, p. 4).

HakiElimu and TTU conducted a research report on the living and working conditions of

teachers in Tanzania. The research was undertaken in seven districts of the country and

included both quantitative and qualitative methods. The purpose of the research was to

find out about teachers´ own perception about their working and living conditions. There

have been several studies that point to the relation between teacher quality and quality of

education. Authors like Coleman, Husen and Solomon have carried out studies that

indicate that high quality of teachers have a positive impact on students’ achievement in

developing countries. Bacchus (1996) argues that the impact of teachers’ quality is

greater the poorer the country is (Sumra ca.2003b, p. 2). According to the research, the

status of teachers has declined in recent years. Furthermore, this status decline is a

reflection of the decline in their living conditions depending a lot on their salaries (Sumra

ca.2003b, p. 17). The research also shows that the qualifications of primary school

teachers are low. Almost half of the teachers in primary schools do not have an

educational level above their pupils. One of the recommendations in the research is that

the Government must put in place a policy that attracts better qualified students to the

teaching profession. They mean that the solution lies in improving the status of teachers

(Sumra ca.2003b, p. 43).

HakiElimu have also published a summary of a research conducted by PhD candidate

Euan Davidson. The authors’ research was entitled “Understanding and Improving

36



Quality in Tanzanian Primary Schooling” and based at the School of Development

Studies, University East Anglia, UK. The purpose with HakiElimus summary is to

explore the progress of PEDP between 2002 and 2004 with respect to the expanding of

primary education and quality issues related to this. The research took place in Morogoro

Region and the method used was mainly qualitative (Davidson 2004, p. 2). Among other

things, the author found that most teachers felt that their overall welfare has not improved

during the PEDP. The teachers were most dissatisfied with their salaries. The teachers

meant that the starting salary of Tshs2

70.000 not was enough for a teacher without a

family to make a living. They thought that the absolute minimum would be Tshs 100.000.

The consensus was that about Tshs 400.000 would be needed for a teacher to live a

decent lifestyle. Many teachers said that they had to do other things to get money that

often interfered with the teaching (Davidson 2004, p. 6).

According to the research, the majorities of the teachers use the blackboard and

complement with some verbal explanation, and the pupils tried to copy the notes in their

notebooks. Davidson argues that the reason for the poor pedagogy was that the teacher

did not have the confidence to use the methods they had been taught at the teacher

training collage. The reason for their poor confidence was not due to insufficient

academic ability but to the lack of practical experience in the use of these techniques

(Davidson 2004, p. 8). Davidson was also worried about the training that was being

offered to the new teachers during their second year that they spend in school. There was

actually almost no training at all during the second year. It also appeared as the methods

of teaching were chosen in order to maintain control in the classroom and not to aid in the

learning process. There was little evidence that any quality learning was taking place

within the examined schools. This was after three years of PEDP implementation

(Davidson 2004, p. 10). The examination results for primary school leavers have

increased to 49 percent in 2004 compared to 27 percent in 2002. However, the reason for

this is not necessarily improved quality of education. There could be several reasons for

this increase and one might be that there has been some change in the examination

structure. For example since 2003, emphasis in mathematics has been decreased which

traditionally have had poor examination results (Davidson 2004, p. 11).

2 1 USD ≈ 1250 Tanzanian Shilling

37



7. ANALYSIS

In the analysis chapter we connect the theoretical framework and the empirical chapter.

The chapter starts with the quality of the teachers and the environment in the primary

schools. The analysis ends with a discussion about the PEDP.

Quality of the teachers

Our theory about the teachers’ quality focuses on the professional competence and their

satisfactory level which is highly correlated with their living condition. With this theory

in mind, our study shows that the teachers’ quality in general is low. We believe we

found much ground for this.

Davidson’s study show that most teachers overall welfare has not improved during the

introduction of the PEDP. The starting salary of Tshs 70.000 is not enough to support

them. In fact many teachers have to look for moonlighting, often interfering with their

ordinary job according to HakiElimu. This is likely to affect the teachers work

negatively, having to think of ways to increase the income etc. The research carried out

by HakiElimu show that the qualifications of primary school teachers are low. Also

Mtavangu worries over the teachers’ quality. Many of the teachers have inadequate

qualities which make them unconfident, he says. Both the primary school teacher and

Mtavangu believe that the burden for the teachers has increased. If the burden is too high,

the teachers will probably be tired and frustrated.

In addition HIV/AIDS add more weight to the burden. HIV/AIDS is a known and

devastating disease worldwide and this is a burden for both teachers and pupils. For

example, if a teacher get infected or have to stay home and take care of an infected family

member, a colleague must stand in, increasing the amount of work for the others. The

burden also increases if a pupil loses the parents or guardians in HIV/AIDS, because then

the teacher maybe have to play the role of a psychologist as well. One could imagine that

this is emotionally exhausting for a teacher. When the teachers get infected, the illness

affects their way of teaching and their alert during the lesson. Since there is no social

38



safety net in Tanzania it is a possibility that they keep on teaching when they really

should not.

According to HakiElimu the status of teachers in Tanzania has declined in recent years.

This could have a negative impact when it comes to recruiting new teachers. The fact that

teacher profession is perceived to be a low status profession will not help to improve the

quality amongst teacher. Also the primary school teacher confirms that teachers are

unsatisfied with their salary. According to Persson, a large proportion of the teachers in

primary school only have primary school education. This means that they sometimes

have the same education as their pupils. The lessons are concentrated on the teacher

standing at the blackboard and the pupils copying the information into their books. There

is no time for teachers to visit the children and offer them help, therefore the teaching is

more like transmission than learning. He also states that the in-service training, which is a

quality factor, is limited. Persson believes that in-service training is important for

motivating the teachers. We think that lack of in-service training is a threat to the

teachers’ quality. How should the teachers maintain their knowledge if no in-service

training is being offered to them? Eventually they might forget important details in

teaching techniques and miss out new improvements etc. The Tanzanian Government is

aware of the problems with the teaching force. They have stated in the ETP that the

teachers’ salaries are low and irregular and have inadequate teaching facilities. It is also

written in the ETP that the teacher status among other jobs is low. The Government has

also stated in their ETP that the minimum for a qualified primary school teacher should

be a valid Grade A Teacher Education Certificate. Grade A teachers have a Secondary

Certificate and two years pre-service training at a Teacher Training College (Davidson

2004, p. 8). This is far from the reality. There are many Grade B/C teachers teaching in

primary school. The Government also reduced the teacher training at the colleges from

two years to one in order to accommodate the massive enrolment expansion. When

starting work, the teachers should get support from tutors at the training college during

the second year. According to HakiElimu however, the new teachers received little

support in reality. Mtavangu described the mentorship as a failure and said that quantity

preceded quality in this case. It is worrying if the requirement on new teachers reduces.

39



Then there is a risk that the general quality of the teachers drops. The statistic show that

the PTR has increased to 59:1 in 2004 from 46:1 in 2001, precisely before the school fees

were abolished. This is a considerable increase, making the classrooms even more

crowded. HakiElimu emphasize the seriousness in the situation; “ In fact the increases in

enrolment under PEDP are reported to have led to overcrowding and chaos, placing an

enormous strain on under-motivated and ill-equipped teachers and further eroding

quality of education” (Rajani and Sumra 2003, p. 5).

Quality of the environment in primary schools

When it comes to the school environment our theory concentrates on the work of Per

Settergren. He argues that a good quality school should be secure and comfortable. There

must also be a curriculum with high ethical foundations as well as dialogue in the school.

Furthermore, the pupils’ intellect, imagination and emotion have to be stimulated.

Both the teacher and the pupils have to feel secure and comfortable when in school,

otherwise they will not succeed with other issues according to Settergren. The security

and comfort differs of course from school to school. Unfortunately we did not have the

opportunity to attend a lesson at any school so therefore it is hard for us to give a

comprehensive statement on this matter. We visited Zinga Primary School in the outskirts

of Bagamoyo during our stay in Tanzania in April 2006. There were no class activities

but it gave us an opportunity to see the buildings and the facilities. The school teacher

told us that it often was more than 100 pupils in the classroom with two teachers holding

the lesson. The pupil per book ratio at Zinga is 5:1. It should also be mentioned that the

classrooms was quite small, and some desks were broken. The building had doors but

there were no proper windows. It was a huge contrast compare to the Kibaha Secondary

School and Tumbi Primary School. Kibaha which is located outside Dar es Salaam is a

school for the elite, gathering the most talented students in the country. We experienced

this school to be a very well organized and functional school and felt that the

environment was much more pleasant. In the ETP it is stated that facilities in school is

vital for good quality education and there is a need for improvements. According to

HakiElimu, schools are still not safe and friendly especially not for girls. Rajani at

40



HakiElimu also says that corporal punishment increase when the class is overcrowded.

Mtavangu verifies that corporal punishment like caning and manual work is used

relatively common.

Persson indicates that new curriculums should be given more consideration. He says that

new teaching methods could improve the quality of education. Anthony Mtavangu would

like the curriculum to be reviewed to become more relevant. He believes that the

curriculum should be formulated in a way that prepare learner to become self confident

and creative thinking. The curriculum should also enable the pupils to become problem

solvers and good citizens.

Settergren points out the importance of influence and responsibility. It is likely that the

pupils will perform better if they are given responsibility and have the possibility to affect

their schooling. In our opinion the pupils in primary school do not have any influence at

all. Pupils chosen to be prefects have some responsibility but not in the way that there

exist any pupil councils which we had in mind. The primary school teacher said that the

teachers get instructions from above, which means that their influence is restricted. The

teacher said that they are just doing what they are told. Our opinion is that pupils are

brought up with this kind of thinking. They are not encouraged to be active and taking

own initiatives, affecting the learning process in a negative way.

Referring to Settergren’s theory about dialogue, it is a way of getting the pupils to

achieve and improve their knowledge. We also think this is an important element for

improving their oral capability. On the basis of our study there is not much of a dialogue.

The existence of dialogue is one if the major challenges in the school in Tanzania today

according to Mtavangu. The primary school teacher points out that the teachers try to

interact with pupils when they visit them at their desks. The teacher thinks it is hard

because there are so many children; it takes a lot of time just to follow up their work in

the exercise books.

We are very doubtful that there can be any interaction at all really. There is no way that

the teacher can give any feedback to all pupils. For example if the classroom is too

41



crowded it could mean that only the children in the front rows is involved in the

discussions taking place. We are worried that this issue is not named or treated in the

ETP. We believe this indicates that much more work has to be done from the

Government side. It takes time for introduced policies to be implemented in practice.

Therefore it is unfortunately that it has not been incorporated in the ETP yet.

This is an important factor for the pupils to be able to develop their cognitive capacity.

Cognitive capacity is about the capability of thinking and learning and improving the

intellectual functions. Settergren stress that the pupils is given stimulating assignments in

order to develop their thinking. Moreover it is important that the teachers are enthusiastic

and have great knowledge in their subjects. In the ETP it is stated that language is an

important tool for achieving cognitive skills, knowledge, technologies, attitudes and

values. ETP also says that, regarding the socio-economic situation in Tanzania it is

important that subjects as science and technologies will get more attention. As we know,

Tanzania is dependent on their agriculture and it is very important sector. The agriculture

sector contains numerous of different kind of work and skills. ETP points out for example

different skills regarding this, skills like carpentry, masonry, economics and technical

skills etc. Mtavangu thought that the primary education in Tanzania is too academic and

it focus mainly on preparation for secondary education. We think that the Government

should consider making primary education more adapted to Tanzania’s socio-economic

situation. Less than ten percent advances to secondary education so therefore the content

in primary should be adapted to the reality. Skills regarding agriculture could be more

useful.

Mtavangu said that during the classroom activities it is important that teachers are

interactive. Social value, an affective domain, a cognitive and intellectual development

are factors that Mtavangu points out of being important when speaking about the

stimulation. We find it interesting that these factors are taken into consideration, even if

there are major problems like overcrowded classrooms, poor facilities etc. Mtavangu also

mentioned that self-reliance is a must among people regarding the way of thinking, when

speaking about going from practice to action. For people, like in Tanzania, we find this

important for them to receive a greater knowledge and so that they can be part of the

42



society and for example struggle against poverty. Mtavangu concludes that competence

in writing, reading and numerous skills is also important regarding self confident in

thinking, this encourage people to become for example a good citizen and a problem

solver.

It is interesting and important that both Mtavangu and ETP points out what is important

for Tanzania’s future and the development. This illustrates that they both are aware of

problem and possible solutions. HakiElimu also mentioned the importance of

creativeness, life skills and self-esteem and it is in the school they get educated and where

they learn to think.

The educational actors’ view

Mtavangu thinks that the PTR has changed to the better compared to ten years ago.

However, according to statistical data this is not true. He was negative towards the

shortening of the teacher training program and said that quantity was at expense on the

quality. We believe that this indicates a deterioration of the quality. Mtavangu mentioned

that lessons are dominated by the teacher and prevents dialogue with the pupils. He feels

that the burden has increased for the teachers and also that the quality of many teachers is

inadequate. He also discussed the examination results and says that the Government uses

the improved results as a measure of the quality. Mtavangu do not think that examination

is a suitable measure for quality and is uncertain if the quality has changed. We reckon

that Mtavangu believes that the quality of the education still is low and there has not

really been any change.

The primary school teacher presents a more positive view regarding the change of

quality. Nevertheless the teacher is dissatisfied with the overcrowded classrooms and an

increased burden for the teachers. On the other hand the teacher is positive that the

schools have more control over the budget and can use funds according to needs. Besides

there have been other improvements such as building of new classrooms and more

facilities. The primary school teacher comments indicate that there have been some

improvements and is more positive in general than the other educational actors.

Persson says that in highly populated areas there are often more than hundred pupils in

the classrooms. He is questioning what kind of teaching can take place in these

43



circumstances. The teacher training has not been able to keep up with the increase in

enrolment. This statement also indicates a decline of the quality. Improved examination

results do not necessarily depend on improved education. The reason for the improved

examination results is probably a change in the examination process. He also states that

access of textbooks has not increased in the same extent as the amount of pupils. But

there has been a slight improvement since the beginning of the PEDP. This is an

indication of an aspect of quality heading in the right direction. According to Persson

many of the teachers do not have a complete teacher education. Taken together Persson is

careful in his statements and says that it is too early to make any conclusions. However

we feel that Persson is more negative than positive and glimpse a slight of decline in the

quality of education.

HakiElimu has witness an improvement regarding the building of new classrooms and

access to textbooks. HakiElimu has the same opinion as Mtavangu when it comes to

shortening of the teacher training education. They also think that the increased burden for

teachers has further eroded the quality of education. Besides the status of the teacher

profession has declined in the last years. Research shows that the qualifications of

primary school teachers are low according to HakiElimu. The overall welfare for the

teachers has not improved either. HakiElimu believes that there is low quality of

education in general and that the quality has deteriorated since the abolishment of school

fees.

PEDP

The PEDP was implemented in 2002 by the government and is a comprehensive program

stretching over five years. Enrolment expansion, quality improvement, capacity building

and optimizing the utilization of human material and financial resources are the core

components in the plan. The abolishment of the school fees is one strategy included in the

PEDP. There is a risk that this well-known strategy becomes an obstacle in implementing

the PEDP entirely. We argue that this is the case. In our minds there is no doubt that the

abolishment of the school fees have been a great help in increasing the enrolment rates.

However, when it comes to improving the quality some doubtfulness emerges. Since the

enrolments rates have increased due to the abolishment of the school fees, this has also

44



placed some strains on the school system and especially teachers. Arguments for this

have been put forward in this thesis. In a way, the strategy to abolish the school fees is a

contradiction. It is helpful in achieving some parts of the PEDP but complicate the

fulfillment of others. It is clear that quantity have been given a higher priority than the

quality. There is a question whether the plan is sustainable. Certainly, there must be a

limit in what extent the quality can be put aside. Interesting is that, in our opinion, a

predominant majority of the donors involved with development cooperation work

welcome the abolishment of the school fees. We find this somewhat surprising and

expected to hear more critical voices. We are not saying that it was wrong to abolish the

school fees, only that the consequences should have been examined more thoroughly.

The interviews we carried out show that they all are very positive to the Governments

decision to abolish the school fees. This together with other aspects indicates to us that

introducing school fees again is not a solution.

Other solutions to the existing problems must be found. Figure 6.3 show an impressive

financial improvement in the last decade. This must continue in order to assure the

necessary capacity to handle the enrolment expansion and improve the quality of

education. Although it is not enough with financial resources, other factors are needed for

manage the massive expansion such as human capital for example. Human capital is not

easily reinforced and quite some time is needed. More funds must be directed to the

teachers in order to give them better support in their daily life and improve their

professional competence. According to Hans Persson the abolishment of the school fees

has resulted in a financial gap. The increasing financial allocation to the education sector

has not covered the income loss due to abolished school fees. It is difficult to say whether

the financial gap is the reason for the poor teachers’ salaries. Mtavangu sees no relation

between the salaries and the abolishment of school fees. Besides, corruption can not be

totally ignored. It is not certain that extra funds reach all the way down to the teachers.

45



8. CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this thesis was to examine different educational actors’ view to what

extent the quality of education has been affected since the abolishment of the school fees

in primary school. These are the questions we wanted to respond:

- What have been the effects on the primary education of the abolishment of the

school fees?

- What are the different educational actors’ views about the quality of education in




In November 2001, the school fees in primary school were abolished by Tanzanian

Government. The effects on the primary school from this decision have been that the

enrolment rate has increased a lot. Approximately 2.7 million more children were

enrolled in 2005 compare to 2001. The NER in 2001 was 66 percent and in 2005 the ratio

rise to 94.8 percent. During the same years the GER increased from 84.4 percent to 109.9

percent. Between 2001 and 2005 the PTR went from 46:1 to 59:1. During this period,

approximately 46 000 teachers were recruited and approximately 54 000 new classroom

built.

The huge expansion in enrolment has resulted in that the burden for the teachers has

increased. The status of the teacher profession has been declining during the last years.

Another effect from the abolishment is that the teacher training has been reduced from

two years to one year.

We also examined the educational actors’ view regarding the quality. It should be

mentioned that their views which we present is compiled on the basis of our impression.

HakiElimu believes that the quality has declined since the abolishment of the school fees

and that the quality in general is rather low. They also believe that the abolishment has

lead to increased burden for the teachers. We think that Persson and Mtavangu present a

46



fairly similar view. They both complain of some lacking in the quality but they are

hesitant whether there has been any change since the abolishment of school fees.

Although they state that the high increase in enrolment rates has lead to some difficulties

for the education system. The primary school teacher is more positive in some of the

aspects. We found this rather interesting because of his daily interaction in the primary

school as a teacher. But it must be mentioned that the teacher was concerned regarding

the increased burden for the teachers.

We also believe that the abolishment of school fees have affected the conditions for

implementing PEDP entirely. Since the burden for the teachers has increased it also

complicates to fulfill other targets like improving the quality. It seems like the quantity

have been given higher priority than the quality. However, we believe that it is not a

solution to again introduce school fees. The reason for this is that everybody we have

spoken to think that it was a good move from the Tanzanian Government to abolish the

school fees.

We have some thoughts regarding the curriculum in general. From what we have learned,

curriculum is too academic and not suitable to the Tanzanian context. Agriculture is the

most important sector where about 80 percent of the Tanzanians is working and living. It

is better to learn how to think creatively and be able to cooperate with others instead of

preparing for higher education. Is it right to educate children at young age for the purpose

to handling the university when such a small fraction get the opportunity to attend

university. It is also worth mentioning the considerably regional differences in the

enrolment rates. For example the NER in Tabora Region is about 68 percent when in

Kilimanjaro Region it is 100 percent. From what we have read and found out from the

interviews it is obvious that the teacher profession status must be improved. It is vital to

break the negative trend regarding the teacher education. Unqualified teachers will

provide low quality education in primary schools. It is the children in primary school

today, who is the future for Tanzania.

47



Concluding comments and further research

The PEDP has been successful when it comes to enrolment. Tanzania is not far away

from reaching a hundred percent in Net Enrolment Ratio. However, there is still a lot to

be done in order to improve the quality of the primary education in Tanzania. Those

involved in the international aid community play an important role in developing

countries. We would like to stress the importance that they consider more thoroughly

what consequences a plan like this can give. It is of course the Tanzanian Government

that introduced the PEDP but the international aid community has a significant influence

and responsibility.

At national level the Government has started a decentralization process. We believe that

this is the right decision in improving the primary education. As we see it, it would be

better if each district can decide for them selves how the primary education should

improve and develop. The districts could also join with another district especially if a

district has limited capacity. The Government should therefore support the districts

instead of controlling them.

We would like to express that this study rely on a rather limited material and therefore

should the conclusions not taken to be definite.

Here follows some suggestions for future studies regarding this area; It would be

interesting to follow up what happens with the children who pass primary education, will

the secondary school be able to accommodate them? The large enrolment expansion

increases the pressure on the secondary school. The quality issue is likely to be a topic for

discussion here as well and consequently making it an interesting research area.

48



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