equip–tanzania practice paper

The importance of sustainable revenue for schools

Financial resources available to schools fall short of needs across the vast majority of schools in Tanzania. Historically, funds to maintain and improve schools are often requested from parents. However, when the Government of Tanzania introduced “fee-free education” in late 2015, it reduced the scope to request money from parents, while enrolment increased spectacularly, particularly for Standard 1 classes. It was within this context that the Government of Tanzania and EQUIP-Tanzania sought to devise ways for schools to generate more income from local sources. The aim was to bring communities and schools closer together to develop a sustainable revenue generation activity, and to make students learn local trades and applied skills.

As far back as 1967, Tanzania established the principle

of Education for Self-Reliance (ESR), which promoted

school-based Income Generation in all Tanzanian

schools. The purpose of ESR was to set down principles

of education, which would serve as a revolutionary

influence in the creation of the new socialist society and

also students to develop skills that would help them

manage life after graduating school.

In 2016-17, the President’s Office Regional Administration

and Local Government (PO-RALG) in collaboration with

EQUIP-Tanzania, introduced Income Generating Activities

(IGA) again. The programme trained local government

and schools on business plan development and appraisal

processes. An IGA Grant was made available for 50%

of schools in the seven regions of Dodoma, Kigoma,

Lindi, Simiyu, Shinyanga, Mara and Tabora with the best

business plans. The selection of schools was based on

the quality of school proposals to their local LGA. A

total of 2,235 schools received IGA grants in the seven

regions.

EQUIP-Tanzania is a £90m, UKAID-funded education

programme supporting the Government of Tanzania

to improve the quality of learning outcomes in

primary schools, particularly for girls. It focuses on

system-led, cost-effective improvements that deliver

change in ways that can be replicated at national

scale. EQUIP-Tanzania began implementation in 2014

with five regions and has since expanded to reach the

nine regions of Dodoma, Katavi, Kigoma, Lindi, Mara,

Shinyanga, Simiyu, Singida, and Tabora, now covering

over 5,196 primary schools and over three million

pupils.1

Livestock

Increasing resources and skills for school improvement: Income Generating Activities

IGA survey found that more than 74%

(881 of 1,195) of schools set up livestock

and-or farming businesses.

More than

74%

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EQUIP–TanzaniaPRACTICEPAPER

Implementing Income Generating Activities Income Generating Activities (IGA) were designed to

operate on business principles and to be relevant to the

livelihood choices of the majority in the community. As

such, they are designed to:

● provide a sustainable financial resource that

generates stable capital to school, in order for it to

acquire extra income to support its operation and

development needs

● give School Development Plans (SDP) additional

resources for implementation and therefore inspire

greater community engagement in planning;

● to add more knowledge to the community through

their participation on IGA activities;

● decrease the cost burden on parents and therefore

reduce the vulnerability of the poorest households

and students to exclusion from school;

● to empower students with entrepreneurship and life

skills through their participation on IGA; and

● to engage school committees in accomplishing their

oversight roles as school managers; and to bridge the

gap with community members through participation

and interaction with its members on selected

projects.

Pawpaw plantation

PO-RALG supported by EQUIP-Tanzania trained LGAs

to ensure a better understanding of schools’ needs

and to provide adequate support in the process.

Different materials were developed as a guidance on

the implementation of this intervention, after which

representatives of schools were trained as well. The

materials included:

● Business plan guideline. This self-learning document

was meant to help school representatives to decide

which business ideas would work best in their

context. This guide was distributed to all schools prior

to the training. They were given four weeks to read

the guide and develop their business ideas before

attending the training.

● Training manual on how to prepare school IGA. The

manual was distributed to participants during training

at ward level (a few schools). School representatives

were then required to return to their schools and

communities to finalise their business plans in

accordance with the instruction provided during the

training.

● School guide for validation and finalisation of

business plan. This document describes the process

of completing business plans and also how these

plans were to be reviewed and scored for potential

funding. This is a self-development process that

enables users to identify best options for their

business plans. It also helped schools to design and

review implementation plans.

● Application forms. Administrative forms needed to

apply for the grant.

● Facilitators’ guide. This manual was given out to the

district officers during regional training and their roles

in oversight of LGAs.

All national facilitators attended regional training in Lindi.

Thereafter, they split up to train trainers in the remaining

six regions. At each regional level, eight participants

from LGAs were selected and attended the training

making a total of 408 participants. The training aimed at

capacitating participants on how to prepare a business

plans to run small and medium enterprises.

These eight participants at regional level comprised

officers from Agricultural, Cooperative, Extension,

Business, Community Development, District Academic,

and Logistics departments which ensured a holistic

approach to support sustainability of projects at school

level. These trained staff were meant to advise, support

and check progress of IGA at schools.

Increasing resources for school improvement: Income Generating Activities

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After attending training at regional level, being given

knowledge and skills the training was cascaded to

district level. The trainers trained all Ward Education

Officers (WEOs) and four school representatives from

all schools in seven regions. The four participants

from school level included a business expert, a School

Committee representative, the head teacher and one

school project teacher. This was a three days training

given set of skills to schools’ representatives on how best

to write proposal and execute projects once being given

funds.

After the ward level training schools were required to

prepare business plans that best suit their environment.

This was a collaborative process with community that

surrounds the school.

LGAs supported by PO-RALG and EQUIP-Tanzania

selected 50% of all schools that submitted their

proposal. The selection criteria ensured that only the

best proposals would be funded. Regional Trade Officers

(RTO) supported the LGAs in making a objective

selection. The 2,235 selected schools received a grant of

Tsh 1,500,000 to implement their business plans. A total

amount of Tsh. 3,352,500,000 was disbursed between

November and December 2017.

Tomato plantation

Impacts and outcomesWEOs supported by EQUIP-Tanzania monitor IGA

through the digital Kobo Collect system. The Kobo

Collect system allowed offline capture of results to later

send it to cloud servers for analysis and reporting back

to users. WEOs received training on how to enter data

used their own smart phones or the tablets distributed

for the School Information System.

Tsh. 3,352,500,000(Three billion, three hundred and fifty-two millions) was disbursed between

November and December 2017.

94.2% of reporting schools had established projects according to their proposal submitted to LGAs. This demonstrates the level of commitment that both the school committee and management have which supported establishment of school-based projects.

Source: IGA survey conducted using Kobo

Collect software 2018


schools received IGA grants.

2,235

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School projects receiving IGA grant by region

Region Total

number of

schools

Total

qualified

schools

Selected Project Number

of schools

implementing

SIMIYU 522 258 Animal and poultry 207

Agriculture 44

Other 8

TABORA 733 383 Animal and poultry 196

Agriculture 105

Bee keeping 29

Other (shops, cafe, tailoring) 53

KIGOMA 636 320 Animal and poultry 125

Agriculture 132

Bee keeping 7

Other (shops, cafe etc.) 56

LINDI 496 251 Animal and poultry 159

Agriculture 49

Water projects 23

Bee keeping 1

Other (shops, cafe etc.) 23

SHINYANGA 558 283 Animal and poultry 152

Agriculture 59

Bee keeping 30

Other (shops, bricks, stationary etc.) 42

DODOMA 727 369 Animal and poultry 178

Agriculture 84

Bee keeping 41

Other (shops, bricks, stationary etc.) 66

MARA 757 371 Animal and poultry 174

Agriculture 147

Other (bee keeping, shops, cafe, tailoring) 50


The IGA survey found that more than 74% (881 of 1,195) of

schools set up livestock and or farming businesses. These

included all kinds of farming like maize, cotton, sunflower,

beans and animal keeping – chickens, cattle, pigs and

goats. Many schools wanted to establish horticulture,

but this requires a consistent water supply i.e. irrigation

system which in most cases the cost is beyond the

available grant.

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Types of businesses established

One of the major objectives of establishing IGA activities

in schools has been to help students gain business

skills and knowledge which can be applied later in their

economic life. During the training, head teachers were

oriented on the necessity of involving pupils so that they

can too own the project through their participation. The

participation of students also ensured their increased

knowledge in understanding of how to implement such

projects at younger age. Out of the 1,087 respondents,

88.5% (962) confirmed students’ involvement in their

projects. For example, in many projects which includes

livestock keeping pupils were oriented on how to best

take care of livestock and also provide them with food.

Children in classroom

“In Simiyu, the IGA has helped us to establish factories, all the qualified schools in Maswa and Meatu implemented ‘one district one product’. We requested DFID and they agreed with the idea. A lot has been gained so far and all activities are doing very well. For example, all qualified schools in Meatu district are implementing cattle keeping as the region is in the process of establishing milk processing and dairy product factories”.

Simiyu Regional Commissioner Hon. Anthony Mtaka


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Lessons learnedThe Government of Tanzania, through PO-RALG, is

preparing a guideline to scale up IGA in all schools in

all regions. There will be no grant given, the schools are

expected to raise the funds themselves. However, it is

recognised as a significant and desirable effort in helping

schools to generate sustainable income.

Almost all schools are confident that their income

generating activities will generate significant funds and

skills. However, after a relatively short implementation

period, most schools are yet to report profit because of

the late start of implementation, replanting of new crops

and waiting for the harvesting season.

Despite its initial observed success, there are factors that

proved to be constraints. A lack of project management

was one of the main obstacle to ensuring all IGA projects

were successful. It was also found that there was a lack

of local market and customer purchasing power, which

affected the ability to sell the products that had been

produced.

To build on the successes achieved to date, there should

be improved linkages between LGA staff and schools.

LGA staff are advised by regional secretariats to prepare

the plan and try to find some funds to monitor school

IGA activities, especially those allocated in the villages.

LGAs lack funds to provide monitoring and visits to

schools to assess the progress of these projects and

offer support needed. Although schools were being

visited by respective WEOs, it was also considered to

be a good idea to have direct support from the sector

extension officers by visiting the project area and

advising on IGA activities.

Little levels of knowledge on the proposed businesses

led some schools to revise their IGA proposals. This

required a process of revising the proposal, sending it

to the DEO office for review and the revised proposal

then being sent to Regional Secretariats for approval.

This also led the IGA activities not to be implemented on

time.

Among the schools that received IGA grants, 88% have

started at least some IGAs by EQUIP-Tanzania’s Endline

Evaluation2, according to head teacher reporting. Few

schools have reported to generate profits which they

used to re-invest in the IGA to increase the capital first

before they use it to support school development. If

the IGAs are successful in generating additional income

for schools, and this is used to address relevant school

needs and priorities, this may not only contribute to

improved school performance but also to sustainability.

This shows that introducing and supporting IGA in

schools has the potential to increase resources, provide

funds for schools and contribute to better learning

outcomes.


1 PO-RALG, BEMIS Report 20172 EQUIP-Tanzania, Impact Evaluation Endline Quantitative Technical Report, OPM, February 2019

For more information about EQUIP-Tanzania visit:

www.equip-t.org

[email protected]

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