A few days ago, a reflection paper titled “Education in the Developing World” on Tanzania’s education system was brought to my attention. It was written by a Peace Corps teacher and coach who worked at a school in Lindi for one year. The author taught math, physics and computers and also helped to institute the school’s first girls’ football team. The author also observed the lack of basic resources and, more critically, the “narrowed view of education” in Tanzanian schools.
I would like to respond to this reflection by raising three alternative reflections on education, written by Tanzanians themselves. The first concerns where resources for education come from. The second concerns how students, teachers and anyone else involved with the educational enterprise can claim resources entitled to them. The third concerns the definition of education itself.
1. Resources for education
It is no secret that schools in Tanzania lack resources. There have been studies to show that learning is severely affected due to the lack of materials and proper attainment mechanisms. But where do resources come from? For public schools, they come from the Government. Often times, they also come from donor countries and institutions. For example, the World Bank’s capitation grant is missing in many schools; this begs the question, who monitors the capitation grant? It is easy to observe that our schools lack resources, but it is much more difficult to investigate why they are lacking in the long resource-chain that countries like Tanzania have become embedded in.
2. Claiming resources for education
In Tanzania, teachers recently went on strike. During the strike, there were apparently students marching to local authorities and demanding to be taught. The strike ended in a week, but the teachers’ demands – consisting of salary increases among other things – were not met. If, in the worst case, protests do not work, how can students, teachers and other direct stakeholders of education claim resources? Further, how do they claim resources that entitled to them by national policy? So the idea that teachers and students do not try to improve the state of their schools on their own is incorrect. The fact is that many teachers and students would like to improve the state of their schools but are unable to do so because of reasons beyond their capacity.
3. Defining education
How do you define education? Do you define it as any sensed data, processed in the mind and stored for later use? Or do you define it as a uniformed human body sitting on a desk, listening to a teacher and reporting on what they are taught? We all seem to assume one definition of education today (the latter) and seldom entertain the thought of awarding education in other ways. We blame Tanzania’s education system for being backwards because people have to memorize facts. Yet, what do students in other schools in other countries have to do to pass an exam? Do they not also have to repeat facts taught from a curriculum and pass a grueling set of exams in order to progress into higher levels? It appears that education is defined the same in any country one would venture to; what differs are the conditions in which students and teachers find themselves in.
In short, context matters. While reflections are important and certainly inform future policy, our reflections should involve history, culture and an acute awareness of bureaucratic structures that govern our very reflections. Let us keep an open mind when it comes to education and avoid treating all contexts as the same.
Related links:
- Reflection paper: “Education in the Developing World“
- Reflection from TZhiphop.com: “How we continue to fail eachother“
- Creating a durable economy
- Learning and independence
- Other Vijana FM posts on Education
Heads up! NUHA Foundation has launched its 2012 blog prize. Similar to last year, the competition encourages young writers to choose from a range of topics and NUHA will post shortlisted essays on their blog. Last year an impressive 7 out of 26 shortlisted candidates were from East Africa. Let’s raise the bar this year!
Thank you for the response. You are both right on how you view the state of education in Tanzania. The fact of the matter is you are all looking at the education system in Tanzania under very different theories of learning. AK you are under the impression that circumstances beyond the control of teachers and the communities under which the schools exists controls most of the learning processess in the schools in Tanzania. That is external factors are the cause to the failures we see in our education system. On the other hand, the peace corp volunteer believe in the idea that everything we do is under our own control. External factors have little due influence on whether we succeed or not and therefore put the failure squarely to the teachers and communities in which the schools exists.
I would argue both of you to see a study (referenced on twaweza website) that talks about the major causes to low literacy and numeracy skills in East African pupils. The major cause (ranked from low to high) according to the study is not lack of materials, student-to-teacher ratio, and/or labatories in the schools, but teacher absenteeism. I may be going out of topic here but read this report.
Yup, I have read the Uwezo reports. But let’s dig deeper than the facts. Why are teachers absent? If you were a teacher, why would you not go to your primary job? Possible reasons could be: You aren’t paid well and find better pay doing other gigs, you are not treated well by your superiors, you are working in unworkable conditions, etc. I beg to differ that these reasons are due to the failure of teachers themselves. I would argue that they are due to (the lack of) motivating factors in teaching as a job.
We live in a data driven world. We can not afford to agnore facts. The fact is that teacher absenteeism has a much greater influence on students’ performance than the other factors combined. I however do agree with you that motivating factors have a due influence on the larger question regarding why teachers do not go to work and/or go to work but don’t really work while there.
My question is this–what needs to be done to change this fact? Do we need more government interventions? or do we need to create a more responsive mechanism at the society level (within the schools and their sorrounding communities) to ensure that teachers are fairly compensated and also held accountable for performance?
I do not know about you? I do not like what I see on the Twaweza reports each coming year.
Since you mention reports, Uwazi’s most recent survey shows that 97% of parents in Dar do not know the capitation grant amount that their children are entitled to. So, sure, we could continue government interventions with a more responsive mechanism for society to oversee the interventions, but you can’t change what you don’t know. Nobody likes sobering news, but the truth is that you and I have convenient access to the news while millions of Tanzanians do not.
Interesting responses.
More so i wish its the university education which is under discussion then perhaps i will contribute because i have a lot to say. As to whether there is a missing link between the academic programmes offered in the Universities and what the job market actually requires. And whether our degrees are worthwhile or not.
I know am off from the discussion but hey… this is my concern.
@Franka I think university education is definitely applicable here. It relates back to what I was trying to say in the post RE: definition of education.
Why do you think there’s a missing link between university programs and market requirements? Should market follow academia or vice versa or… ?
University education is at the top of the root education (pre-K, K-7 and secondary education). Wherever there is a missing link (gaps) at the bottom, the gap gets magnified as you move up the education ladder. The gaps in science, math and reading literacy (see twaweza reports) at the root- schools can’t be fixed with the 3-4 years that most people spend to earn their degrees at Uni. That is to say, most people graduate from colleges in Tanzania with worthless degrees (No offence). No essential and/or transferable skills are gained over the cause of their university careers. Yes-Frank, the gap between degree programs at Uni. and necessary market skills need do exist. This gap actually leads to people getting hired and working in capacities where they have no job related skills resulting to poor productivity in the work force.
Changing just degree programs at the universities will not fix this problem. The teaching related to these degrees need to focus more into skills building rather than rote memorization of theories and principles. Degree program graduates need to develop skill sets that are needed to be successful in their working environment. The most important factor for me is teaching skills other than rote memorization of facts which is the norm in most if not all colleges in Tanzania.
To sum this all up—fixes need to start from the bottom of the education chain. That is from pre-schools, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools–all the way up to universities and graduate schools. We always seem to look at a college degree holder and dismantle him/her for lack of skills. Where did he/her go to college? We often forget this is the same person that came from schools that did not prepare her/him well in science, math and writing. If we have to fix this image—fixes need to be throughout the whole education system. Just putting a Band-Aid in convenient places will add up to the problem and not in any way will that band aid help to solve the problem.
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