Pre-primary education policy in Tanzania: Does it meet the educational needs of newly naturalized refugee children?

Over the past five decades, Tanzania has hosted over two million refugees, about 200,000 of whom have been naturalized as Tanzania citizens. Children from this group face numerous challenges within the mainstream educational system. This paper considered education policy in Tanzania, with a specific focus on children from naturalized refugees’ access to quality pre-primary education. It analyzes relevant policy documents published from 2006 - the year before Tanzania started its latest refugee naturalization phase, to 2016. The 2014 Tanzania Education and Training Policy (ETP), the Pre-primary Curriculum, and the Pre-primary Schools Guide give the most focus on pre-primary education. Three National Five-year Development Plans considered all levels of formal education, except the pre-primary level.  Findings revealed that policy documents articulate a commitment to providing equal educational opportunities for all people, regardless of their background, acknowledge existing problems with the educational system and make sensible recommendations. These include abolishing fees in all public schools; increasing flexibility in the choice and use of languages of instruction; decentralizing of program management and accountability; and, recommendations related to curriculum issues. However, the associated working documents do not suggest specific strategic and implementation plans to meet the intended goals, nor do they prioritize increasing educational participation for naturalized refugee children.&nbsp

Towards Global Peace and Sustainability: Role of Education in Peace-Building in the Great Lakes Region of Sub-Saharan Africa

The Great Lakes Region of sub-Saharan Africa is well known for being volatile and turbulent in terms of peace and stability. For over 60 years, almost all countries in the region have experienced some kind of political and social turmoil such as civil war, coup de tat, and genocides. In 1960, the first democratically elected Congolese prime minister was assassinated. There were unprecedented social and political havoc in a nearby “other Congo” characterized by power struggle between various political and ethnic factions in the post-independence Congo Brazzaville. In Burundi and Rwanda, ethnic tensions between the Tutsi and Hutu engulfed the developmental dreams of nationalist freedom fighters until 2015. Though arguably stable, Tanzania has experienced its own share of socio-political messy including the 1998 Mwembechai and 2001 Pemba massacres. Efforts to build a sense of sustainable peace and development based on mutual understanding and socio-political harmony has brought limited success. In all these countries, the missing link in building sustainable peace and security has been a lack of education. The chapter intends to fill this gap by critically analyzing the potential role of basic education, especially pre-primary and early grades education, in sustainable peace-building in the sub-Saharan context

Timely promotion as a motivation factor for job performance among pre-primary school teachers: Observations from Tanzania

The study explored the role of timely promotion as a motivational factor among pre-primary school teachers. Two districts (1 urban affluent and 1 rural poor) were selected. Stratified purposive sampling was used in the selection of 16 schools - 08 from each district; 32 pre-primary school teachers - 04 from each school, and 08 school principals - 01 from each school. Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and documentary review. Regardless of urbanicity, findings revealed that the primary responsibility of teachers was to ensure children’s holistic development. Achievement of this role solely depended on timely promotion and other motivational factors such as the involvement of teachers in decision making, appreciation from educational officers, and good working conditions. It recommends that joint efforts among pre-primary education stakeholders should timely promote teachers, pay their salary arrears, upwardly review teachers’ welfare packages, and the conditions of services

The role of parental involvements in children’s acquisition of Kiswahili pre-reading skills in Tanzania

This study explored the role of parental involvements in children’s acquisition of Kiswahili pre-reading skills in Tanzania. Specifically, it compared rural public high performing schools and low performing schools. Stratified random sampling and purposive sampling were used to obtain 350 participants. Data were collected through questionnaire-based-interview, semi-structured interview, focus group discussion, and tests administration methods. An independent sample t-test and thematic analyses were employed. Results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in involvements between parents from high performing schools (M= 33.39, SD = 9.79), and those from low performing schools (M= 31.74, SD = 9.93); t (152) = 1.040, p >.05 in learning activities. This implies that parental involvements in learning activities were less associated with children’s acquisition of Kiswahili pre-reading skills. Findings from interviews and FGDs revealed that parental involvements were hindered by lack of parents’ knowledge about pre-primary education, limited parental support, and effects of home learning environment. To maximize children’s pre-reading skills, the study recommends that parents should be informed about their involvement in learning activities

Is fathers’ involvement in young children’s development and learning in the early years important? Experiences from the caregivers in Tanzania

There has been an increased interest among researchers and policy makers on fathers’ involvement and its implications on children’s wellbeing and learning. Existing empirical evidences from developed countries have documented fathers’ essential role that successfully improve children’s development and learning. However, there is dearth of evidence from developing countries especially from sub-Sahara African contexts. This study was designed to establish Tanzanian experiences particularly Kimamba village in Kilosa district on fathers’ involvement in children’s development and schooling dimensions. Descriptive exploratory study design guided collection and analysis of data of the rural context. A total of 23 fathers were recruited for focus group interviews. The analysis of data revealed that fathers had good understanding on their roles and involvement in child rearing and learning for mastering social and economic welfare of their children, families and larger population. Fathers indicate that their involvement have significant contribution on children’s development across schooling periods and later in life. Their responses range from preparing home environment and crafting home-based timetable for the child to adhere when at home after school hours. The study concludes that, in a context with limited educational resources, parenting education is important for both fathers and mothers. This may ultimately lead to closer parental involvement and collaboration in child rearing and caring. It is therefore recommends that Social Welfare Officers in collaboration with the District Education Officers and teachers should organise and run sensitization programmes to improve fathers’ involvement on children’s development and learnin

STEM starts early: Views and beliefs of early childhood education stakeholders in Tanzania

For about a decade, Tanzania has intensely focused on developing literacy and numeracy skills in pre-primary and early grades programs. Recently, the attention has shifted towards the significance of teaching Science, Mathematics, Technology and Science (STEM) in the early years. To enhance the 21st century skills necessary for building a middle income and knowledge-based economies, the existing empirical evidence emphasizes the need for STEM education starting from pre-primary level.  This paper aims to unpack the state of the STEM education in pre-primary education in Tanzania. By using homogenous purposive sampling, two policy-makers, three ECE academics, eight school principals, and eight pre-primary teachers from rural and urban public schools were recruited. Data were collected by interviews, semi-structured survey questionnaires, and documentary analyses. Though there was consensus among ECE stakeholders that children should be exposed to STEM environments as early as possible, findings indicated that even among ECE practitioners, there is a very vague understanding of what entails of STEM education in ECE. Further, while teachers were aware and guided to facilitate science and mathematics education, they were not aware and there were no specific policy briefs/circular instructions on how to facilitate Technology and Engineering education in ECE. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to integrate STEM in early childhood education, especially for Tanzania

Pre-primary education policy in Tanzania: Does it meet the educational needs of newly naturalized refugee children?

Over the past five decades, Tanzania has hosted over two million refugees, about 200,000 of whom have been naturalized as Tanzania citizens. Children from this group face numerous challenges within the mainstream educational system. This paper considered education policy in Tanzania, with a specific focus on children from naturalized refugees’ access to quality pre-primary education. It analyzes relevant policy documents published from 2006 - the year before Tanzania started its latest refugee naturalization phase, to 2016. The 2014 Tanzania Education and Training Policy (ETP), the Pre-primary Curriculum, and the Pre-primary Schools Guide give the most focus on pre-primary education. Three National Five-year Development Plans considered all levels of formal education, except the pre-primary level. Findings revealed that policy documents articulate a commitment to providing equal educational opportunities for all people, regardless of their background, acknowledge existing problems with the educational system and make sensible recommendations. These include abolishing fees in all public schools; increasing flexibility in the choice and use of languages of instruction; decentralizing of program management and accountability; and, recommendations related to curriculum issues. However, the associated working documents do not suggest specific strategic and implementation plans to meet the intended goals, nor do they prioritize increasing educational participation for naturalized refugee children

Early childhood education in Tanzania: Views and beliefs of stakeholders on its status and development

Globally, there is consensus among education stakeholders that early childhood education sets a foundation for children’s development, learning, and future life achievements. While global perceptions of early childhood care and education (ECCE) have been broadly explored in other parts of the world, little is known about ECCE in Tanzania even though it is ideally a compulsory part of formal basic education for every child before joining grade one. This study investigated the status of early childhood education (ECE) in Tanzania by critically analyzing the views and beliefs of stakeholders on its status and development. The study recruited two policy makers, 14 ECE college principals, 34 preprimary college tutors, and three ECE academics using a homogeneous sampling technique. Employing a phenomenological research design, the study used questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGD) and documentary analyses in collecting the required data.  Findings revealed that while in the policy and curriculum documents ECE holds equal status with other levels of education, it holds extremely low status among education stakeholders, resulting in ill-prepared preservice ECE teachers and limited parent-school engagement. To improve the quality of ECE in Tanzania, stakeholders suggested improvements in the quality and quantity of preservice teachers, including detachment of preprimary classes from primary schools and establishment of an integrated ECCE policy, guidelines, and practices to be completed by an ECCE joint taskforce.  Further, in-service training for ECE college tutors and principals is critically important, as is concentration of limited resources in few selected teachers’ colleges

Fathers’ involvement on children’s school performance among camped-refugees and local majorities’ communities in Tanzania

This study assessed differences in fathers’ roles and involvements in children’s development and learning in Tanzania. It compared fathers’ socio-economic statuses and their implications on children’s various indicators of learning attainments. A total of 400 fathers and 400 pre-primary and early grades children aged between 5 and 7 years – 100 from each of rural camped refugees, rural non-refugees, urban poor and urban affluent groups were recruited. Data were collected by fathers’ questionnaires and interviews. Learning attainments were measured by Bracken’s Basic Concept Scale – Receptive, Early Grades Reading, and Mathematics Assessments. Findings indicated that fathers who were closely involved, their children demonstrated higher learning attainments. Compared to rural non-refugees, rural camped refugee fathers demonstrated close involvement which resulted in higher learning attainments for their children. Further, the role of fathers in children’s development and learning varied across the four social groups. These findings broaden our understandings of various supportive factors related to the involvement of fathers on children’s development and learning. In Tanzanian contexts with limited educational resources and prevalent inequalities, to maximise children’s potentials, fathers’ involvement is critically important