SCHOOLING SYSTEM IN TANZANIA

SCHOOLING SYSTEM IN TANZANIA

1.0       INTRODUCTION

A good system of education in any country must be effective on two points on the Quantitative level, to ensure access to education and equity in the distribution and allocation of resources to various segments of the society and on the Qualitative level, to ensure the Country produces the skills needed for rapid social and economic development. Evidence exists to show a very high correlation between investment in education and the creation of National wealth.

Despite the rapid expansion of the education system over the past three decades in Tanzania, human resources remain seriously underdeveloped. Too few of the working population have adequate knowledge and skills needed to meet the demand of rapid economic development. The potential impact of new technologies in agriculture cannot be realized without skilled farmers. The shortage of scientist, engineers, teachers, doctors, nurses and other high level skilled personnel in agriculture and industry deprives the country the ability of adopting and developing new technologies and skills based on in-country research and applying the results to the local production of goods and services.

2.0           HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In Tanzania, traditional education emphasized principles of good citizenship, acquisition of life skills and perpetuation of valued customs and traditions. During the German and later English colonial periods, education provided was limited to very few individuals earmarked to serve the interest of especially the colonial administration. Immediately after independence in 1961, the government passed the education act of 1962 to regulate the provision of Education so that to:-

§  Abolish social discrimination in the provision of education.

§  Streamline the curriculum, examination as well as the administration and financing education provided for uniformity.

§  Promote Kiswahili as a National language by making Kiswahili and English media of instruction in schools.

§  Make local authorities and communities responsible for the construction of Primary schools and provision of the primary education.

§  Establish a unified Teaching services for all leaders.

3.0       SCHOOLING SYSTEM / STRUCTURE IN TANZANIA

The Tanzania structure of formal education and training system is 2 -7 – 4 -2 -3+;This is to say 2 years of pre- primary education (or kindergarten), 7 years of primary education, 4 years of Secondary Ordinary level, 2 years of Secondary Advanced level and a minimum of 3 years of University education.

3.1       Pre- primary education:

Pre- primary Education is intended to cater for children between 5-6 years and is structured to last for 2 years with no examination.

3.2             Primary education:

This is a seven year education cycle. According to education act No. 25 of 1978, primary education is compulsory in enrollment and attendance. At the end of this cycle, pupils can go on with Secondary education, vocational training or enter the world of work.

3.3             Secondary education:

Secondary Education is sub-divided into ordinary level (Form 1-4) and advanced level (form 5 and 6). The Ordinary level lasts for 4 years while Advanced level lasts for two years. Student who complete Ordinary level go on to the next stage of Advanced secondary level education, vocational training, professional training or the world of work, while those who complete advanced level join either tertiary and higher education and training institution or join the world of work.

3.4             Vocational Education and Training:

This type of Education and trainings is associated with acquisition of skills for wage employment, self-employment or further vocational and professional advancement. It covers the commercial, technical, work study programmes and apprentice training programme undertaken by the ministries, NGOs and private organization. 

4.0             CHALLENGES FACING THE EDUCATION SECTOR.

Since Independence, the government has been taking various steps to ensure that all school going children attend at least the seven years of primary education which is compulsory but still only 50%- 70% of all the children attend primary school.

              Some of the reasons which hinder children to attend school include:-

§  Poor financial abilities of their families which make it difficult for the children to have school going facilities such as exercise books, schools uniforms, schools fees e.t.c

§  Some primitive cultures hinder female children from acquiring education, as they don’t value women education. Women are supposed to care for their husbands and children and not going to school.

§  In some areas especially rural areas, children are part of the family labor force and are required to undertake their obligations during school time. Some of the activities are engaged in are: taking cows or goats to the fields for grazing, digging, fetching water and firewood, cooking food, looking after young ones while the parents are working in the fields.

Besides such problems, it is worthy noting that female children are affected most.

Basically female make up over 52% of the total population, but their education chances are always hindered by especially the cultural set up of tribes in Tanzania.

Some of the reasons which hinder female children to have equal opportunities to education include:-

§  Early marriages or pregnancy which force those enrolled to drop out of school.

§  Household work, which is considered female affairs. Such work include cooking, cleaning the house, looking after children e.t.c

§  Many female children are brought up and made inferior to the male children. This inferiority makes them uncompetitive even when at school. Female children rarely go in for tough subjects or jobs. For instant very few female children study science subjects and thus you find very few female doctors, engineers, e.t.c

In fact the number of female children who register for std. I is almost that of male children, but as you continue to secondary and university level the number of girls decreases compared to that of boys.

Other challenges include:-

-          Inadequate teaching facilities

-          Poverty

-          Need for continued moss mobilization e.t.c

5.0                ACHIEVEMENT IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR

I.                   Government commitment to Education:

The Tanzania government has put much emphasis in mobilizing the population to understand the need to have education society. There has been steady growth in number of students being enrolled in primary, secondary and higher education institutions. There has been a significant increase in the number of schools and other training institution annually.

For example, during the period between 2005 – 2010 the number of secondary schools increased from 1,745 to 4,266.  These include 3,397 community schools and 869 private schools.  The number of secondary school teachers increased from 23,905 in 2005 to 40,517 in 2010.  The net enrollment ration in secondary schools increased to 47.3 to in 2010 from 20.2 in 2006.

Students enrolled in universities and colleges has increased to 118,9051 in 2010 compared to 40,993 in 2006.

The Government abolished Primary Education fees in all government schools.  Also fees for secondary schools scholars have been limited to 20,000/= per year (about 20 Euros) for day scholars, and 40,000/= (about 40 Euros) for boarding scholars.

The government has also been directing and passing education policies all aimed at improving the education system of the country.

II.                Positive response of the local population:

The local population has been responding tremendously to the education campaigns. Although the economic status of the majority of people is very low, but many have been using significant amount of their earning on education there children. It is common to hear rural peasants telling their children in Swahili that “Elimu ni ufunguo wa maisha” literally meaning “Education is the key to life”.

Communities have directly contributed more than 60% of all community secondary schools constructed  in the past 5 years.

6.0             CONCLUSION

Besides some set backs, the education sector has been progressing gradually. This can be attributed to the government and its people’s recognition that education is a key aspect in the development of any country. The government has set up the necessary policies to improve the situation, the needs are known and analysed but resources remains to be the major stamping block to be worked on seriously.