Technical education and training in Tanzania: Access, Equity and Improved Quality for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development

What you need to know:

The National Council for Technical Education (NACTE) was established by Act of Parliament Cap. 129 (No. 9 of 1997) to oversee and coordinate the provision of technical education and training in all non university institutions in Tanzania.

The number of registered technical institutions has been increasing over years. This has opened up more opportunities for youth from secondary schools to access technical education and training. The National Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania (BEST,2018) indicates that there was an increase of registered technical institutions from 324 in 2012 to 540 in 2018 (221 Government owned Institutions; and 319 Non-Government owned Institutions) registered by the National Council for Technical Education (NACTE), and thus legally authorized to provide technical education and training in Tanzania. In that regard, there has been an increase of enrolment as well. Generally, the trend shows that the number of students has increased for both male and female students from 112,447 in 2012 to 128,121 in 2018 (BEST, 2018).

The Technical Education and Training (TET) in Tanzania, practically implements the Sustainable Development Goals, 2030, guided by the Tanzania Development Vision, 2025, the National Five Year Development Plan, 2016/17 – 2020/21, the Education and Training Policy, 2014 and other related policies to ensure that equitable access to quality technical education is provided to all youths and adults across the subsector. Basically, TET’s main emphasis is to enable everyone in the target group have equal opportunity to learn, develop and enhance knowledge, skills and competences regardless the gender, disability, disadvantaged and vulnerability or any kind of obstacle, so that all can equally participate and contribute in creating transformative changes and development in the national economy.

The observed gradual increase of enrollment in technical institutions which is from 112,447 in 2012 to 128,121 in 2018 out of which the number of female students was 53,889 in 2012 and 57,456 in 2018, makes a remarkable indicator for achieving progressive gender equity in technical education and training. On the other hand, the enrolment of students by field of study and awards indicates that the enrollment in science and allied technology programmes is 19,386 in 2018 out of which the number of females enrolled was 5,596, i.e. 29% (BEST, 2018). This indicates that there is a need of devising gender mainstreaming strategies to increase the number of females in science and technology related fields. At institutional level, there have been initiatives to mainstream gender issues, specifically to ensure increased number of females in science and technology programmes; including introduction of access courses for female students.

Technical education and training in Tanzania: Access, Equity and Improved Quality for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development

What you need to know:

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