By Zephania Ubwani, The Citizen Bureau Chief
Arusha. Only about half of girls from the poor families complete primary schools in Tanzania compared with over 90 per cent from rich families, according to a study.

The Tanzania Domestic Household Survey carried out last year indicated that at least 93 per cent of girls from wealthiest households attained full primary education in contrast to 54 per cent from the poorest families. The report, presented to stakeholders in urban development here last week, showed that although primary school enrolment was high in Tanzania, gender disparity in study completion was worrying.

Dr Festus Ilako from the African Medical Research Foundation, who presented the findings at a seminar organised by MS-Training Centre for Development Cooperation (formerly Danish Centre), said the problem of low completion remains a matter of concern to many policy makers.

The primary school net attendance ratio in the country is 88 per cent in urban compared with 78 per cent in rural schools.

Disparity in secondary education attainment was also worrying, he said, because girls in urban compared with those in rural areas were eight times more likely to finish secondary education.

Similarly 49 per cent of girls among the wealthiest households compared  with only nine per cent from the poorest families complete secondary education, findings of the survey indicated. However, Dr Ilako told experts on urban development drawn from various African countries that the inaccessibility to education in Tanzania could be traced to policy shifts since independence in 1961. He attributed them largely to poverty and under-funding, leading to the shortage of teachers, many of them poorly trained.

 Learning conditions were also poor, leading to overcrowding in many schools. Learning materials, desks, books and pens are inadequate. For some cultural reasons, education for girls was not given its due importance.

He suggested that short- and long-term solutions be found to resolve problems facing education.

That should involve increasing investment in school infrastructure in the rural and urban areas and development of Elimu Kwanza  (Education First) initiative alongside Kilimo Kwanza with the involvement of the private sector.

“The current education service delivery models are biased towards supply-driven and top down approaches. There is a need for reforms to create demand-driven education/training delivery systems, drawing lessons and better cooperation instead of competition with the private sector”, he said.

Turning to the health sector, the expert said the situation was equally worrying because maternal mortality ration (MMR) has remained unacceptably high in the country at 454 per 100,000 live births with a very wide disparity between the urban and rural areas.

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