PROBLEMS IN TANZANIA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM.

There is inadequate cultural /structural value placed on education and the role of the teacher in helping to shape each Tanzania child’s future.

The teacher to pupil ratio is 1:63 and there is chronic teacher absence problem due to lack of teacher accountability, low pay, unsatisfactory preparation/schooling for the job, uninformed parents and insufficient textbooks/other supplies.

Root system causes.

Although the government spends a high percentage of its yearly spending on education, there are few examples of successful trajectories to college and jobs that required an education in underachieving populations (especially in rural areas). If a child grows up in a family that earns income from agriculture and is not exposed to the opportunities, he/she has no way of envisioning a different life style or a different path of success.

The limited perspective that parents and community elders have seep into the mindsets of the children Tanzanian parents (who have 5 to 6 children on average) often utilize children to meet family/economic needs and cannot pay for every child to attain a secondary education – let alone a college education.

Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania and cultural icon there (as well as a former teacher), helped to propagate the cultural/political ideas that education should specifically address the realities of the life in Tanzania and should give students the root to be self-reliant. Even though this idea still pervades Tanzania society and imbues education there with its own unique flavor, many children in Tanzania do not have the proper support in schools to engage in the necessary components of the education model that Nyerere built.

Root school/ classroom causes:

Schools are not equipped to meet the needs of their student- let alone set high expectations for students. With a school life expectancy of just 5 years, school are not even retaining many student for the compulsory 7 years the government mandates a child must attend the school. As noted above, Tanzania has one of the highest teachers –to-pupil ratio in the world at 1:63 and there is a chronic teacher absence problem due to lack of teacher accountability, low pay, unsatisfactory preparation/schooling for the job, uninformed parents and insufficient textbooks/other supplies.

The primary concern in the nascent phases of Teacher for Tanzania should concentrate on finding/developing modes of successful classroom with the basic frame work of education that already exists. This will serve as a vital foundation before analyzing the HOW, WHAT and PURPOSE of  education in Tanzania and constructing a plan for revitalization.

MODEL OF A CHANGE.

Recruiting top leaders:

Teach for Tanzania will recruit the most talented college graduates from top universities in Tanzania (and perhaps from around  East Africa) including the university of Dar es  Salaam and the university of Dodoma to work in local schools that have a demonstrated need.

Training

We will design a June holiday program for-long training (4- weeks) in Dar es Salaam that will engage Teach for Tanzania corps members with the following essential qualities of excellent teaching.

1.       Belief  in the need of an excellent education
2.  Commitment to the cause
3.       Leadership
4.       Classroom culture sensitivity
5.     Standards/curriculum understanding
6.      Goal setting
7.      Critical thinking
8.     Creativity

Different from Teach for America Institute teachers will dedicate most of their energy to teach during the June holidays classes and will apply the above “essential qualities” as the lead classroom.

Placed as traditional teachers for two years.

Teachers will teach full-time in primary and secondary schools with demonstrated need. As they teach, they will receive ongoing support in the following ways:

1.        Supervision/guidance from Teacher for Tanzania program director(as often as necessary)
2.     Monthly grade-level planning sessions
3.    Quarterly seminars/outreaches that focus on effective teaching and meaningful community relations.

Alumni

Alumni will eventuary hold an equally important role as the corps members themselves in the way that the scale up the quality of education overall in Tanzania.

Alumni will:

1.    Continue to be excellent classroom teachers
2.     Assume school leadership roles
3.     Assume local and national educational leadership roles, including in the political sphere (confronting systematic educational issues)
4.       Take the Teach for Tanzania teaching experiences with them into other influential fields. (law, medicine, engineering e.t.c)
5.    Stimulate the national dialogue regarding education, thinking critically about how education can best serve the Tanzanian people.

We will drive measurable impact to:

1.     Develop a more consistent system so that each child can healthily address the realities of his/her life-reality in Tanzania.
2.   Give young, powerful, idealistic and motivated college the means to serve their country.
3.     Transform cultural perceptions of the teacher and the value of education
4.    Build more structural pathway of success
5.    Empower the Tanzanian electorate to understand their opportunities and their rights.
6.   Enhance Tanzania’s national strength /self-reliance so that it can compete in the world market and therefore have the wherewithal to make decisions that are in the best cultural interests of the country. 
   
   
   What does success look like in 20 years…?
   Success would look like
   Classroom across Tanzania purposefully and effectively addressing the realities of Tanzania children so that they can lead self-reliant, healthily and happy lives.
   
   
   Cultural and structural value placed on education as indicated by government policy and national pride in the education system.
   A literacy rate of at 90%
   A primary school Net Enrollment Rate (NER) of 99%
   A secondary school NER of at least 70%
   Higher reading, math, science, and social studies averages compared to the other East African Nations (and eventually on level with other notable national education system)
   A decrease disparity between male and female enrollment
   A decrease disparity between urban and rural literacy
   Families and communities playing an active role in public schools
   A smaller pupil to teach ratio
   Motivated highly qualified, well-trained teachers in the classroom
   Teach for Tanzania acting as central player in guiding education policy
   There will be a great increase in the number of teachers with the ability to lead students to
   dramas tic and demonstrable life changing growth.
   Teach for Tanzania alumni working on all levels of the education system to improve the quality of education across the country.