Policy Brief-Education in Tanzania

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………….1

2. POLICY BRIEF TITLE………………………………………………………..2

3. PROBLEM IN FOCUS…………………………………………………………2

4. FORMULATION OF EDUCATION POLICY IN TANZANIA ……………..2

5. CURRENT EDUCATION POLICY IN TANZANIA………………………..3 - 4

6. SHORT FALLS IN THE CURRENT-
EDUCATIION POLICY IN TANZANIA…………………………………….4 - 6

7. PROPOSED NEW EDUCATION POLICY IN TANZANIA……………….6 - 7
8. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE –
NEW EDUCATION OLICY IN TANZANIA ………………………………...8

9. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………….8

10. REFERENCE


EXCUTIVE SUMMARY:


Soon After Independence in 1961,Tanzania declared war against three development enemies
namely: Ignorance ,diseases and poverty .Various plans and programs were formulated and
implemented aiming at improving strengthening and expanding social services such as
education, health, water, communication ,transport ,agriculture and the economy at large.
In its efforts to eradicate poverty the government put priority in formulating and implementing
policies that places the citizens at the centre of the development process.
By the early 1980s over 90% of Tanzania school age children were able to enroll in primary
Schools. However these achievements were negatively affected from the late 1970s and 1980s.
Reasons for economic decline had been collapse of commodity prices in the International market
for exported goods (largely raw materials) this in turn affected farmers income and the country’s
foreign exchange earrings thus weakening the ability of the government to provide basic social
services one being adequate and quality education services.
Increase in the price of petrol and petroleum products which adversely affected the country’s balance of payments forcing the government to depend on foreign loans and grants which in most cases are associated with donors priorities and interest and has very little or no economic gain to the recipient country the government unable to provide adequate and Quality education services the collapse of the East African Community (EAC) which forced the government to channel resources to sustain or establish services that were jointly provided by the community the collapse of East African Community brought economic policies. The ability of the government to provide adequate and quality education services was adversely reduced during this period.
The 1978/79 war against Idi Amin forced the government to divert resources to overcome the aggression During the war after the war the country was faced with acute inflation as the citizens and the state were all engaged in overcoming the Aggression. Economic activities were largely suspended leading to poor and down trend economic growth and in any case inhibit the provision of basic social services education included
In the same years; 1974 onwards the country also experienced extended drought periods which drastically affected production in various sectors of the economy. This led to hunger and decline in government unable to provide basic social services education being among of them.
All the above factors are said to contribute to the decline to the provision of basic social services by the government. The economic recovery of new social policies was also formulated in1995.
This education policy of 1995 is more than 12years old now.
During this period substantial internal and external changes has taken place in terms of internal social needs and political needs and global science and technology advancement; globalization policies global economic adjustment policies and programs, as well as global political changes. All the above social political technology and economic changes internally and externally necessitate the need for Tanzania to revisit and adapt new education policy in order to cope with the current quality and scope of education needed to overcome this century social political and economic hurdles; and put itself in a better economic and development position.












































INTRODUCTION:

This policy brief paper is geared to explore the education policy in Tanzania.
The main objective is to come-up with a policy brief paper which brings forward alternative options to the existing educational policies with the ultimate aim of improving the existing one or introducing new ones in order to speed-up the elimination of illiteracy problem and poor quality education in Tanzania. This in turn will accelerate the nation development efforts through both the National poverty eradication strategy (NPES) and poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) which was approved in 2000. This policy brief for the education sector in Tanzania will provide the reader with the following insights:-
Policy brief title
Problem in focus
Education policy formulation in Tanzania
Shortfalls in the existing educational policy
Proposed or alternative education policy options.
Benefits/outcomes of the proposed policy options.
Possible short-term and long term problems likely to occur if the proposed policy options are not adapted and implemented.
Conclusion based on-re-emphasizing the importance of new actions or options to be adapted.

POLICY BRIEF TITLE:


“ADOPTION OF A NEW
EDUCATION POLICY IN TANZANIA - A NECESSITY TO COPE WITH THE WORLD RAPID CHANGES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMIC AND TRADE POLICIES, AS WELL AS POLITICAL LIBERALISATION.”


PROBLEM IN FOCUS:-

HIGH LEVEL OF ILLITERACY AND INADEQUATE HUMAN CAPACITY IN TANZANIA THE MAIN
BOTTLENECK IN POVERTY ERADICATION”


POLICY PROCESS IN TANZANIA:


Introduction:-

Definition of policy:- In most cases policy making and decision making are used synonymously analysist’s differentiated policy from decision they argued that policy is larger than decision and that policy usually involves a series of more specific decisions. Harrop (1992) suggest that policy involves “a buddle of decisions and how they are put into practice.”
Policy is again defined as “A purposive course of action which has to be followed by a particular group/actors to address a particular problem or matter of concern (Anderson 1975:3).”

FORMULATION OF EDUCATION POLICY IN TANZANIA:

The main role of the Ministry of Education in Tanzania is to set the policies for education development in the country. In addition the ministry is responsible for improving the education standards in the country. The implementation of the education policy is done at the district level. The ministry also set indicators to monitor the fulfillment of the key sector objectives. The schools inspectorate is under the ministry of education. Since 1995 the communities have a much stronger responsibility in Secondary schools. The community builds a school and the central government will support the completion of the school. Today about 90% of the schools are community owned secondary schools. Though the ministry of education has the main responsibility of formulating education policy, but in a way it is politically influenced to suit the ideology of the government in power.















CURRENT EDUCATION POLICY IN TANZANIA:
The education training policy adopted in 1995 sets the policy for education sector in Tanzania, the policy since then to date has been the road map towards attainment of sufficient and effective education and training to all the citizenry of Tanzania.

THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING POLICY MISSION:
The mission of the ministry of education and Training with this regard has been:- Realizing Universal Primary Education (UPE), eradicating illiteracy and attainment of tertiary education and training commensurate with critical high quality human resources required to effectively respond to the development challenges at all levels

.
THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING POLICY VISION:
The education sector has a vision for Tanzania to be a “Nation which produces quality and quantity of educated citizens sufficiently equipped with the relevant knowledge capable of solving the society’s problems in order to foster the national social political, and economic development.

THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING POLICY GENERAL GOAL:

The ministry of education and training main goal has been to ensure equitable access to quality primary and secondary education for boys and girls. Universal literacy among men and women and expansion of higher, technical and vocational education.




SET GOALS IN THE CURRENT EDUCATION POLICY:

· To increase gross and net enrolment of Boys and Girls including children with disabilities in primary schools from 90.3% in 2004 to 99% in year 2010.

· Increased proportion of orphans and other value able children enrolled, attending and completing primary education from 2% in year 2000 to 30% in 2010.

· Increased percentage of girls and boys with disabilities and OVCs who qualify for secondary education being enrolled and complete secondary education by 2010

· At least 50% of boys and girls aged 14-17 years are enrolled in ordinary level secondary schools by 2010.

· At least 60% of girls and boys pass standard VII examinations by 2010.

· At least 25% of boys and girls are enrolled in advanced level secondary education by 2010.

· Increased enrolment in higher and technical education in Universities and Technical colleges to 30,000 full time students, 10,000 part time and 15,000 distance learners by 2008.

· Improve knowledge on entrepreneurship skills amongst youth.

· Effective HIV/AIDS education skills programs offered in all primary schools, secondary and teachers colleges.

· At least 80% of adults, especially women in rural areas are literate, trough adult and non-formal education.

· Reduce the number of illiterate adults from 3.8 million people in (2004/2005) to 1.5 million people in (2007/2008).

· Increase numbers of students/youth who are service oriented.


SHORTFALLS IN THE CURRENT EDUCATION POLICY IN TANZANIA:

The current education policy could be viewed as dominated by political influences. The policy vision, mission and goals are well stated and geared to solve the problem of insufficient and in ineffective educational services in the country. But the objective had never been realized since the last 13 years of the inception of the policy in 1995.
In general the education policy of 1995 is surrounded by the problem of poor planning and administration. The targets which were set were too unrealistic and surrounded by political motives.
One can wonder for example programs to increase the number of secondary schools, by each ward to build its own secondary school. (The so called community secondary schools). The government motivated as well as pressurizing every ward to have at least one teaching materials like text books laboratory equipments etc. this move led to establishment of many secondary school and the government responsibility will be to provide teachers and community owned secondary schools. The government had never played its role of providing enough teachers to these schools and also 98%of these schools has acute shortages of text books as well as laboratory equipments. The academic performance of these schools had never been good, achieving low grades in their final form four examination. Over 85% of form four leavers had to go back to the village or to the urban towns becoming jobless and later ends up in informal criminal groups.
Not only the problem of poor planning and administration affect the secondary school education, but the same inefficient and ineffective plans has affected and lowered the quality of education in all levels of education system in Tanzania. The Universal Primary Education (UPE) program has led to enrollment of excessively huge numbers of children’s to start primary school education. The enrollment had never matched with the necessary in fractures eg teachers, text books, classrooms, desks, toilets etc. The learning environment in almost 90% of primary schools in the country, especially in the rural settings is pathetic experiencing acute shortage of teachers, classrooms, desks, toilets, text books etc. The same situation applies even in colleges as well as universities.
As stated before poor planning and administration can be sited as the major cause of ineffective and inefficient education policy in Tanzania.
The other major cause is high level of corruption and miss-appropriation of public funds, being practiced by civil servants in the education sector as well as by civil servants in the central government. The resources/funds allocated to the education sector is by far very little compared to the actual resources/funds needed to implement the existing education policy. Any good policy must have the following qualities:
(a) A good and effective policy must be outcomes oriented .
(b) Resources based .
(c) A good policy must be easy to implement..
(d) A good policy must be pluralistic in nature - i.e accommodate majority interest and acceptance.
(e) Must take into Account both internal and external challenges – in terms of social, political and economic challenges.
(f) A good policy must be easy to monitor and evaluate and have clear outcomes and impacts.
(g) A good policy must have a sound or feasible sustainable plan.

The existing educational policy in Tanzania lacks to a larger extend the above mentioned qualities, needed to constitute a good and feasible policy. In general it can be concluded that the Tanzania educational policy is much more geared to quantitative rather than qualitative, the so called “Bora Elimu, but not Elimu Bora.” For example the policy tries to address the problem of illiteracy, by advocating and politically campaigning, to enroll all children who age wise qualify










to start primary education to be registered. This led to over flooding of the primary schools with children without teachers to teach them without text books without toilets, without water and many other necessary inputs. The ultimate outcome of this policy had been to produce a vast majority of primary school leavers who do not qualify for secondary level and they had to leave school and go back to the village, quite pre-mature to undertake self employment for them to be able to earn a living. In some cases some even leaves primary school not yet able to read and write. Those who succeeded to attend secondary education are also faced with the same problem of inadequate resources in terms of teachers, classrooms, desks, laboratories, library, toilets, meals etc. The consequence of this kind of poor learning environment is producing school leavers with low quality academic education. This pandemic of inadequate resources to implement education policy in Tanzania, extend up to medium to higher learning institutions. The existing Higher and medium learning institutions in Tanzania had not been able to absorb all eligible students, due to limited capacities of the institutions. The above shortcomings of the existing education policy in Tanzania portrays that the policy lacks the necessary qualities of a good policy as mentioned before in this policy brief. This justifies the need for a new policy which will realistically solve the problem of ignorance and illiteracy in Tanzania and provide relevant and effective education and knowledge capable to overcome both internal and external social, political and economic challenges.

PROPOSED NEW EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING POLICY IN TANZANIA:

General aim of New education and training policy in Tanzania:

To provide a well balanced and researched quality educational and training to the majority of
Tanzanian citizens, enabling them to effectively overcome the challenges of
underdevelopment and ultimately making Tanzania a nation a owned and enjoyed by
prosperous citizens.
Specific objectives of new education and training policy in Tanzania:

1. The enrollment of children to begin primary education i.e std I – VII, should be done
with caution, taking into account the necessary available resource at every budgetary plans
to avoid the so called “Bora Elimu”, but ensuring “Elimu Bora”, which have both short-
term and long-term positive impacts in bringing about development.

2. The secondary education should be planned to match with the outputs from primary level, at
any particular point in time. If the enrollment in primary level is increased, at the end of the
day there must be enough and well established secondary schools, with adequate teachers,
buildings, laboratories, libraries and other essential resources need to constitute a good
learning environment capable of absorbing increased number of primary school finalists and
ultimately leading to both quantity and quality products of secondary leavers, in both
ordinary secondary education and advance secondary education levels.

3. The matching/Balancing principle should also apply in the establishment of training
colleges, vocational training centers, and higher learning institutions. Because of the
importance of colleges, training centers and higher learning institutions in producing qualified
professionals in varying fields; the government should see the importance of committing a
higher percentage of national resources in establishing institutions, this will lead to increased
number of highly qualified and professional nationals capable of revolutionizing the
national economic, from low level to high level economies

4. Intentional investment and motivation in science subjects, in all levels of the education and
training system.. Specific incentive modules should be designed to encourage a substantial
number of student developing more interest in science subjects.

5. Professionals who qualify in scientific fields - e.g Doctors, Engineers, Researchers should
be honored special employment packages, in relation to those who qualify in non-scientific
fields. This will result in cubing the problem of brain drain as well as boosting the level of
scientific economic development.

6. As much as possible the government should encourage and motivate liberalization in
providing educational services in the country. This will top-up the government efforts and
resources in the provision of education to the people
.
7. The government all the time should target in providing education to the low-income majority
of Tanzanian nationals. This will include free education for primary and secondary
education and provide 100% loans to those who qualify for higher learning education.
.









MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE NEW EDUCATION AND TRAINING POLICY IN TANZANIA:

As much as possible the new policy should avoid the red-tape (Bureaucracy) kind of administration. Intermediaries organs should be minimized to cut down administration costs and improving efficiency in implementing monitoring and evaluating the new education and training policy. Minimizing bureaucracy will also reduce corruption.
A responsible ministry is proposed, having its implementation organs in both regional and district levels. Majority


POSSIBLE PROBLEMS LIKELY TO OCCUR IF THE NEW PROPOSED EDUCATION AND TRAINING POLICY IS NOT ADAPTED:
Getting Tanzania out of abject poverty, with the majority of its people spending less than one us dollar a day; will be a nightmare if the education sector continue to lack a concrete and feasible policy.
The existing policy should be changed to be seen as a problem solving policy rather than just narration of unrealistic expectations. Also equitable provision of education services by the government is important, in order not to leave behind the low-income majority who are very poor and illiterate.



CONCLUSION
It is suggestive that current policy needs to be changed as it is already obsolete about 13 years old (since 1995). The current needs, commanding high level of knowledge and exposure, to be able to tackle challenges associated with modern scientific economic development.















REFERENCE
1. Andres A. and Mattias N. September 2006, Tanzania Education sector policy overview paper.
2 Andrew C and Gino N. Policy Brief, Health care costs:- Does Maine have a problem and what
Should we do about it?
3. Koontz O. 1998; Management, Published by Mc Graw – Hill Kogakush a Ltd.
4. The United Republic of Tanzania Ministry of Education and Training March 1995.Tanzania Education and Training.
5. The United Republic of Tanzania, October 2000, Dar-Es-Salaam, and poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP). Printed by Government Printer, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania.
6. The United Republic of Tanzania, vice-president’s office Dar-Es-Salaam, June 1998; The national Poverty Education Strategy; Printed by the Government Printer Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania.