How Tanzania can revamp its outdated higher education system

Tanzania’s higher education system is outdated for a market economy. Tanzania should make a careful, purposeful, objective examination of its higher education system.

Tanzania’s higher education system is not a good fit for the current market system which is becoming increasingly competitive and dynamic as consumer preferences, technologies, and resource supplies constantly change.

The current education system may have worked for the colonial era or when the country was pursuing ujamaa policies (socialism), but it is too rigid and outdated for the present-day market economy.

A starting point in examining the current education system is at the transition from secondary school (ordinary level) to high school (advanced level). Requiring students to have a “combination” of three subjects based on a single exam makes it very likely that students will be locked into a field of little interest to them and one that is not marketable.

In other words, there’s a good chance that students will be denied the opportunity to study what they actually want to study.

During the ujamaa era when the economy was guided through central planning, the government and its organisations were, by and large, the sole employer of college and university graduates.

The government had long-term development plans which included projections for having specific numbers of graduates for various government and government-related jobs.

The government decided which students would continue on for higher education, which schools they would attend, and what subjects they would study. Eventually, the government also decided what jobs those who graduated would get, where they would be located (geographically), and how much they would be paid. College graduates in the 1970s, 1980s, and even early 1990s, knew almost nothing about writing a resume or going through a rigorous job application process. It was taken for granted that the government would give them a job.

Of course, Tanzania is no longer a socialist country, nor is it intending to go back to socialism. As such, not even education majors or people graduating from medical schools are guaranteed jobs by the government, even when government loans seem to favour certain areas of study. As harsh as it may sound, in a market economy, no one should expect to be guaranteed a government job.

Moreover, even government jobs, whether in education, medicine, engineering or any other field, should be sought through a transparent application process and awarded competitively.

Currently, almost 75 percent of those employed in the formal sector are working in the private sector. Given the dynamic nature of the economy, most young people today should expect, on average, to change careers at least three times.

The reality is that the private sector seeks graduates who have broad theoretical and practical knowledge, even in specialised fields, and are easily trainable. The problem, however, is that Tanzania’s education system has remained rigid.

The current education system, specifically as students move from ordinary level to advanced level, locks students into specific fields too soon. Too much emphasis is placed on the results of Form Four national exams to determine one’s future. However, a student who, for example, did poorly in the Form Four biology exam may still catch up in that subject and successfully pursue a medical degree if that was his or her goal. Moreover, in selecting combinations, no consideration is given to how a student was progressing, overall, in his or her subjects in regular exams. The education system needs to be flexible enough so that even after entering college or university, students can switch majors.

Of course, a flexible education system will create uncertainty for schools and colleges as supply responds to demand, instead of having demand simply respond to supply. But for schools and colleges to provide relevant education, they must be dynamic and prepared to respond to shifts in demand for courses. In other words, colleges must also be prepared to respond to market forces. The current education system is indeed quite easy to implement, as it is prescriptive and, thus, predictable, but its effectiveness for a market economy is limited. In addition, it puts Tanzanian graduates at a disadvantage in competing for jobs with graduates from other countries in the East African Community.