Nothing much to show for reforms in Tanzania schools

That education in Tanzania is in a poor state needs no better illustration than a report released in September by Twaweza, just a week to Standard Seven national examinations.

According to the findings, at least 44 per cent of Class Seven pupils cannot read a Class 2 English story.

Twaweza’s Are our Children Learning? report notes that at least 16 per cent of pupils in Class Seven are unable to read a Class Two Kiswahili story and 23 per cent are un- able to do the same level multiplication.

The findings were based on a survey conducted in 50 districts involving 32,694 children aged between seven and 16 in 1,309 primary schools.

Five years ago, an independent study revealed that only 30 per cent of pupils could read a basic Kiswahili story and do basic mathematics.

Between 2006 and 2012, the pass rate for the Primary School Leaving Examination had declined from 70 to 31 per cent, and the pass rate for the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination declined from 89 to 34 per cent.

To reverse this trend, the government introduced several initiatives via Big Results Now in Education. Five mechanisms were adopted: Changing the accountability environment; building a coalition to enact and sustain the reform; motivating teachers, re-orienting the education system to focus on learning outcomes and improving school financing and management practices.

After President John Magufuli took power in 2015, the government abolished school fees from Class One to Form Six.

It went further and banned government-owned schools from collecting money from parents to finance school projects. But not much has changed, it would appear. Twaweza country coordinator Zaida Mgalla, pointed out that there has been a slight improvement over the