SPECIAL REPORT : Worrying trends of education in Tanzania as illiteracy expands

What you need to know:

Not only has there been considerable relapse into illiteracy and an increase in illiterate adults but there is now a rising number of young people completing secondary schools without mastering the 3Rs. The literacy rate for youth (15–24) stands at 76.5 per cent for males while for females it is at 72.8 per cent. Overall the rate has fallen from a 90.4 per cent literacy rate in 1986, and IndexMundi now reports it at the rate of 67.8 per cent; a dramatic fall of 23 per cent.

We have seen that the school system essentially reproduces ignorant outputs. Whether this is by design or by default is a moot question. The result is a population of Tanzanians that is increasingly politically incompetent and which tends to vote for the ruling party largely out of poverty, ignorance or fear. This is essentially the source of the claim that CCM is dominant in the rural areas but weak in the urban areas. The rural areas not only have the number of votes (70 per cent) but also the average voter in the rural areas is much less educated and more susceptible to propaganda, bribery and intimidation. Moreover, the electoral process is designed and operated to manufacture legitimacy for the state simply by creating the illusion that competitive periodic elections in and of themselves produce free and fair results.

A quick review of the educational dimensions of the national risk will reveal important similarities with the same problems that are currently afflicting Tanzania’s education system in almost all dimensions, albeit, with the necessary differences between the two countries, times and concrete historical circumstances. Issues such as falling behind in international comparisons; declining functional literacy; declining performance by secondary schools students; gifted students not matching their tested abilities (in Tanzania they have virtually disappeared); etc. are high on the agenda of any discussion on the plight of education in the country. Among the fundamental recommendations of the US Commission is what they call ‘basics’ which; “included four years of English, three years of math, three years of science, three years of social studies, and half a year of computer science in America’s high schools”

SPECIAL REPORT : Worrying trends of education in Tanzania as illiteracy expands

What you need to know:

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