Preparing the Next Generation in Tanzania Challenges and Opportunities in Education

Human capital encompasses a broad range of knowledge, skills, and capabilities for success in life and work; quality education is the prerequisite for such capital accumulation. Investment in quality education provides a nation with the workforce equipped to achieve increased productivity and growth. Tanzania has established the goal of attaining middle-income country status by 2015. The country has embraced a nationwide initiative to transform the educational system and prepare its youth to become competitive members of the East African and global economic communities. Building on improvements in access to primary and secondary education, the Big Results Now in Education program, launched in 2013, provides a major vehicle for systemic change to improve service delivery and learning outcomes. Key components for innovation and reform are improving teacher incentives and implementing accountability systems. Preparing the Next Generation in Tanzania: Challenges and Opportunities in Education provides a knowledge base to inform policy makers as they continue to address educational issues. The authors focus the discussion on areas for reform requiring continued attention: unequal access linked to income and gender, poor quality of service delivery, weak and unequal learning outcomes, inefficient resources allocation across educational levels and districts, and weak quality of administrative statistics. Having diagnosed and analyzed the ongoing challenges, the authors enumerate opportunities; outlining the broad policy directions for change to facilitate the program’s goals.