Post-Basic Education and Poverty in Tanzania
Knowledge is Power
This paper reviews the research evidence of returns to education in Tanzania, both financial and non-financial. It considers whether these returns translate into poverty reduction. It reviews recent attempts to reduce poverty through expanding access to education in the light of the long term outcomes of Tanzania’s attempt to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) in the previous century.
1) Long term outcomes of UPE
Tanzania’s past experience with expansion of primary education in the interests of equity has shown that primary schooling does not necessarily lead to poverty reduction in the long run.
Near universal primary schooling in the early eighties does not appear to have yielded benefits such as reduced fertility, greater agricultural productivity and overall economic growth in the Tanzanian case. It was also not sustainable and enrolment ratios fell throughout the 90s.
2) Returns to education
Whilst econometric studies imply that the greatest social rates of return are at primary level, a number of smaller scale and more qualitative studies suggest that for some potential benefits of education, including reduced fertility and improved livelihoods, the effects at the primary level are limited and it is only at the secondary levels that the benefits are fully realised.
3) Employment outcomes
Employment outcomes of the different levels of education imply that the labour market for those with good post-primary education and training is far from saturated, and that rising unemployment is more an outcome of low quality education than of the number of school leavers exceeding the labour market demands.
4) The quality of primary education
One reason why the potential benefits of primary education have not been realised in Tanzania is that the quality of education fell to critically low levels. The decision to drop school fees in 2001, threatened to reduce quality further, as thousands of extra children were enrolled into overcrowded, under-staffed schools. In 2002, the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) was started with extensive donor support. PEDP has enabled enrolment to rise dramatically and has improved some aspects of school quality.
5) Access to secondary education
Tanzania has one of the lowest secondary enrolment ratios in the world, and the majority of places at public secondary schools are taken by families from the richer end of society. Under the current level of provision, education provides very few of the poor with a viable pathway out of poverty. The number of places at secondary schools is set to increase dramatically under the Secondary Education Development Programme (SEDP).
6) Rural-Urban disparities
The majority of the poor in Tanzania live in rural areas. The quality of education in these areas has generally been extremely low. This has meant that few children from rural areas qualify for places in secondary schools. Rural secondary schools find it hard to retain teachers and students.
6) Teacher supply
The quality of primary education has been limited by the quality and quantity of secondary graduates available to enter the teaching profession.
7) Higher education
The poor have only very limited access to higher education, but universities have an important role to play in poverty reduction by training professionals and carrying out research. Low qualifications and competencies among secondary graduates have hampered the quality of higher education.
8) The influence of the external environment
The realisation of the benefits of education depends on the social, political and economic environment that school leavers enter into. The environment in Tanzania has become much more supportive of enterprise and small businesses, enabling individuals to capitalise on their education. Poor roads and services in rural areas remain inhibiting factors in the relationship between education and poverty reduction.
