Education International (EI) welcomes the Tanzanian Government’s plan to eliminate school fees for public secondary schools to ensure that all students successfully leaving primary school have access to higher education.
“Previously, only 10 per cent of primary school leavers could join secondary schools,” said Tanzania’s President, Jakaya Kikwete, addressing Sokoine University of Agriculture’s academic staff and students, as well as members of surrounding communities, on 27 August. “My Government is seeking the best policy on education to improve the secondary education sector. For instance, we are currently considering the possibility of cancelling fees in all public schools to enable all primary school leavers to attend secondary school, as we want to address the problem of children dropping out of school due to an inability to pay.”
Building secondary schools
Kikwete pointed out that his administration’s programme of building secondary schools at district level – after years without such construction - has contributed to increasing the enrolment rate in both secondary schools and higher education institutions.
According to official statistics, there were only 1,745 secondary schools, 1,202 of which were public schools, before 2005. Since then the numbers have more than doubled to reach 4,576 secondary schools, and 3,528 of them are public.
“We have also increased the budget for the Higher Education Students Loans Board, from 16 billion Tanzanian shilling in 2005 (around €7.3 million) to 345 billion Tanzanian shilling (€157 million) now, therefore increasing the number of students benefiting from loans from 16,000 to 95,000,” he stressed.
Public authorities responsible for education
EI acknowledges Tanzania’s efforts to ensure access to education for all, at all levels. “We remind public authorities, in this country and around the globe, that they are responsible for ensuring quality education, i.e. properly trained teachers, quality teaching and learning environments and tools, for all, boys and girls,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen.