Are our children learning? The status of education in Tanzania in 2015 and beyond

Among children in Standard 7, many are unable to complete Standard 2 work. Among Standard 7 pupils, four out of ten (44%) are unable to read a Standard 2 level story in English, two out of ten (16%) are unable to read a Standard 2 level story in Kiswahili, and two out of ten (23%) are unable to complete Standard 2 level multiplication.

Although learning outcomes are poor across the board, children from wealthier homes in urban areas are far more likely to master basic reading and arithmetic skills, than their peers from poorer or rural homes. Despite marked progress in increasing access to education, Tanzania has not fully met its commitments under the Education for All Goals. In particular, deep inequalities exist in terms of school inputs and environments, school enrollment and learning outcomes.

These findings were released by Uwezo Tanzania at Twaweza in a report entitled Are our children learning? The state of education in Tanzania in 2015 and beyond. The report is based on data collected by Uwezo, Africa’s largest citizen-led assessment of learning outcomes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. In the fifth round of data collection by Uwezo Tanzania in 2014, a total of 32,694 children were assessed from 16,013 households. Data were also collected from 1,309 primary schools.

Overall learning outcomes remain low in all three subjects tested for the Uwezo Annual Learning Assessment. Among pupils in Standard 3:

54% could read a Standard 2 level Kiswahili story
19% could read a Standard 2 level English story
35% could complete Standard 2 level multiplication

Over the five years of Uwezo assessments, there has been very little change in learning outcomes. However Kiswahili pass rates appear to show a positive. For example between 2012 and 2014, the number of children in Standard 3 who could read a Standard 2 level story went from 26% to 54%. Nonetheless these findings are still well below the standard set by the curriculum.

The findings of the fifth Uwezo Tanzania report relate to the six Education for All Goals and focus on: access to pre-primary education, access to primary education, the link between mothers’ and children’s literacy, inequalities including gender; and quality of learning outcomes.

Inequality is seen throughout the education cycle in access, equipment and outcomes.

Nationally, 65% of children were not enrolled in pre-primary education; and 84% of them were living in rural areas.
Of the children enrolled in primary school, 62% were from rich or very rich households, while only 23% were from poor or very poor households
Overall, 19.2% of children were out of school; over half were from poor or very poor families.
Less children were out of school in urban districts compared to rural ones
There were also regional variations – 8% of children in Dar es Salaam were out of school compared to 35% in Shinyanga.

In terms of school environments there are substantial differences among the regions.

Teacher absenteeism: 58% in Singida compared to 17% in Ruvuma and Manyara
Pupil-teacher ratio: 126 to 1 in Mara and 56 to 1 in Pwani
Pupil-textbook ratio: 26 to 1 in Tabora and 3 to 1 in Mtwara, Kilimanjaro, Katavi, Ruvuma and Njombe
Pupil-Latrine Ratio: In Simiyu, 261 girls share one pit latrine compared to 259 boys sharing. In Njombe region the pit latrine ratio is 52:1 for girls and 59:1 for boys

In terms of learning outcomes, children in urban areas outperform their rural peers.

There are also stark regional variations: 81% of children aged 9 to 13 years in Dar es Salaam passed the Kiswahili test compared to 28% in Mara and Rukwa. In Arusha, 55% of children aged 9 to 13 years passed the English test while only 6% passed in Rukwa. In numeracy, 67% of children aged 9 to 13 years in Arusha could do multiplication while in Rukwa only 20% could.

Household wealth also seems to influence learning outcomes. Children from very rich households are two or three times more likely to have basic literacy and numeracy skills as those from very poor households. Almost half of children (44%) from very rich households passed the Kiswahili literacy test compared to just 15% from the very poor ones.