The Quality of Education in Tanzanian Primary Schools: An Assessment of Physical Facilities and Teaching Learning Materials

Abstract

The major aim of giving education to all Tanzanians is to provide them with a
concrete and reliable basis for a self-reliant life. Tbe education that can be
guaranteed to all in Tanzania is primary education. Since independence in 1961,
education has always been seen as the core of national development, although
rapid expansion-especially of primary schools-came after the 1974 Universal
Primary Education (U.r.E.) programme. (The Musoma Declaration). For
instance, Roy Carr-Hill (1984:32) noted that there were 9,947 primary schools
in 1981 compared to 4,133 primary schools in 1971, which is double the figure
of primary schools in just over a period of 10 years. 'The position at the end of
1986 was that there were 3,160,504 pupils in 10,173 primary schools, which
represented 86% of all the children who had reached the age of going to school.
(Ministry of Education, Budget Speech for 1987/88).
The enormous expansion of primary school education in Tanzania clearly has
many implications.