NN37, May 2006
Special Theme on Education and Training out of Poverty? A Status Report
EDUCATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION IN TANZANIA
By Ruth Wedgwood, Edinburgh
It is generally accepted that investment in education has great potential to contribute to poverty reduction. It has also been shown that in countries where primary education is far from universal, investment in primary education benefits the poor more directly than investments in post primary. It is therefore often assumed that aiming for Universal Primary Education (UPE) is more equitable, and more effective at reducing poverty, than investing in post-primary education. This line of thinking has led the international donor community to focus spending on the primary level and to put pressure on recipient countries to do likewise. In 2001, the Government of Tanzania, with strong donor support, made primary education free and in 2002 it embarked on the Primary Education Development Programme. As a result, millions of extra pupils have enrolled in primary schools. However, 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.The research on the returns to education in Tanzania, both financial and non-financial, do not give a clear indication of which educational sub-sector has the greatest potential to impact on poverty reduction under present conditions. 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. Employment outcomes of the different levels of education imply that the labour market for those with a 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.
The realisation of the potential returns to education is dependent on the environment within the education system and in the country as a whole. 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 expansion of primary schooling in the late 70s took place at a rate that exceeded the rate at which higher levels of education could train teachers. Primary leavers were recruited as teachers as a temporary measure but many still remain in the profession without having gained appropriate qualifications.
The recent expansion of primary, while dramatic, has not been proportionately as rapid as the previous expansion and extensive donor support has helped to mitigate the negative effects that expansion has had on quality. However, quality is still critically dependent on the supply of teachers which is currently limited by the low quality and quantity of 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. However, while it is only capable of providing direct pathways out of poverty for a limited number of individuals, it may have a more far-reaching role in poverty reduction in terms of supporting the quality of primary education by producing a greater quantity of good primary teachers. A well-educated workforce can also help to establish an environment in which primary leavers can benefit from their education.
In 2004 Tanzania, with the support from the World Bank, embarked on an ambitious Secondary Education Development Programme. The planned rate of growth is significantly greater, in proportionate terms, than the rate of expansion experienced within the primary sector. In a move reminiscent of the UPE drive of the 1970s, school leavers with only a few weeks teacher training, have been employed in order to make up for shortfalls in trained teachers. Pressure to ensure equity favours the spreading of resources thinly to reach as many as possible; however, if the quality of education falls too low, it will not provide a pathway out of poverty.
The full paper, ?Education and Poverty Reduction? presented at the 8th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development in September 2005 is available here