Despite government initiatives since 2016 to move towards free education for children across Tanzania, there are still significant gaps in provision, access and quality of government schooling.
Government schools charge 'contributions' for attendance - additional fees to cover their running costs, and often also charge substantial additional fees to cover uniforms, stationary and meals. In addition, places at government boarding schools remain extremely limited, and for reasons of poor housing or travelling distances, boarding is sometimes the only realistic option available for children.
Unfortunately, whilst the changes in legislation since 2016 have been successful in increasing secondary school enrolment, there remains across Tanzania a plethora of barriers preventing children from starting - and more importantly - completing secondary education.
Here we summarise them:
No school fees = Significant gaps in school budgets. This in turn has resulted in schools not being able to fund school construction and renovation, the purchase of learning materials, and hiring of additional teachers.
Primary school exam policy blocks access to Secondary Education: The government only allows students who pass the Primary School Leavers Exam (PSLE) to continue on to secondary school and it cannot be re-taken, meaning that children who fail are prevented from continuing in formal education and often drop out without completing the final year of primary education. More than 1.6million adolescents have been barred from secondary education due to their exam results since 2012.
Poor infrastructure and school transportation links: Children and young people in remote and rural areas of Tanzania have to travel long distances to get to school. Many secondary schools suffer from a basic lack of infrastructure, educational materials, and qualified personnel. Moreover, there are too few safe hostels to accommodate girls close to schools.
Corporal punishment is endemic in Secondary Schools: School officials and teachers in many schools routinely resort to corporal punishment, a practice that is still lawful in Tanzania in violation of its international obligations.
Girls face sexual harassment, discrimination, and expulsion due to pregnancy or marriage: Less than a third of girls that enter secondary school graduate. Many are exposed to widespread sexual harassment by teachers and face sexual exploitation and abuse by bus drivers and adults who often ask them for sex in exchange for gifts, rides, or money, on their way to school. Shockingly, most schools force girls to undergo pregnancy testing in school and expel girls when they find out they are pregnant. Girls who are married are also expelled according to the government’s expulsion guidelines. Girls also lack access to adequate sanitation facilities, a particular problem for menstrual hygiene, and often miss school during their monthly periods
Secondary education remains inaccessible to many students with disabilities: Most secondary schools in Tanzania are not accessible to adolescents with physical or other disabilities, and are inadequately resourced to accommodate students with all types of disabilities.
The quality of secondary education is poor: Many schools lack enough teachers to cover all subjects; in particular core subjects of mathematics and science subjects, leaving students sometimes going for months without teachers specialized in these subjects. Classes are too large with 70 students on average. Many secondary schools lack adequate classrooms, learning material, laboratories, and libraries. Despite this millions of students must sit two compulsory tests, even if they have not had qualified teachers or materials to study for those tests. Many students fail these exams, and are forced to drop out of secondary education prematurely.