When everyone ran off to private school

During December last year, Fatuma Ismail, 14, was extremely excited about the fact she would in January this year join one of the government schools in Dar es Salaam after passing her Standard Seven national examination.

She was fully prepared and had thoroughly gone through the application form for her new school. On the application day, Fatuma woke up early in the morning to get ready to visit the school. But her parents stopped her from going to the school.

“I was so pissed off. Why would they stop me from seeing my new school and learn a bit before the schools open? They said the school is not good enough as it does not have enough learning materials, enough teachers, or a conducive environment for learning as well as no reliable transport to and from school,” says Fatuma.

According to Fatuma, she had no way to challenge her parents as they gave her strong points to defend their decision. And since they reminded her that she has been schooling at a private primary school, she realised that they had won the argument.

But this hasn’t always been the case. About fifteen years ago parents and pupils were both excited when a pupil was selected to join a government secondary school. Apart from the affordable school fees in most of these schools, parents never worried about the quality of education being provided at these schools. Some research conducted by Success shows that a majority of parents would prefer to take their children to private schools despite the fact most of the schools are very expensive.

Government schools are not an option

Ibrahimu Said, 45, an accountant is a father of two children who are both attending private secondary schools. However, they were selected to join government secondary schools.

He said that, it looks like most government schools are not in a position to give the best to their students due to various reasons, but mainly due to lack of text books and other learning materials.

“Our education sector is going through a rough period. There is lot to be fixed and they all need money that the budget cannot afford to fill the gap, education is not the country’s priority,” says Said.

He asserted that the government is loaded with so many tasks in order to put things in place in the education sector. Parents can therefore not depend on their government to provide their children with quality education and the only option is private schools.

Commenting on the matter, Academic Master, Deogratius Lyamuya at Magila Secondary School in Tanga Region says his school has a number of students who have not joined Form One.

He says that, it is never easy to identify whether they have gone to private schools or they are still at home due to lack of school fees.

“A majority of parents here do not pay attention to education, so they might have just decided to involve their children in agriculture or in business that generates income for the entire family,” says Lyamuya.

However, he supports parents who take their children to private schools saying that it helps them get enough time to concentrate with their studies as private schools have reliable transport.

“Students walk more than three hours only from home to school. By the time they arrive here they are not provided even with a single meal. They learn on their empty stomachs.

They again spend three hours on their way back home. With the given situation I will support a parent who takes his or her child to a private school,” says Lyamuya.

Ezekiel Oluoch is the General Secretary of the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU). He says that, since most of the parents are not satisfied with the quality of education in government schools, those who can afford private school fees just take their children to private schools.

“Apart from all the challenges facing the education sector in Tanzania, lack of teachers seems to be the major challenge. Currently there is a deficit of 40,000 secondary school teachers in the country. This alone can never provide a good learning environment in government schools,” says Oluoch.

Oluoch remembers the past in which things were different: “Back then there were no private schools. With the increase of private schools, parents are now happy that their children are able to get education with fewer obstacles.

In the 1980’s, the ban on private education in Tanzania was lifted and thousands of private primary and secondary schools flooded the country. Currently, 26% of secondary schools in Tanzania are private.* However, these schools are very expensive and the average Tanzanian cannot afford a private education.

Not what it used to be

Alfred Thomas, 35, a banker says that, during his days students were proud of being selected to join a government school. People would point at the student saying that she or he had a smart brain.

Thomas recalls how he was his family’s hero after he was selected to join Bukoba Secondary School, a government run school which had the reputation of having friendly teachers and a top notch learning environment.

“I schooled in one of the best government schools in Tanzania and my grades reflected it. The school had electricity, enough books, enough teachers as well as laboratories and other facilities,” recalls Thomas.

However, my parents used to pay Sh40,000 per year, but the school used to give us breakfast and we were taught how to respect each other and how to get involved in social activities and sports.

Thomas calls upon parents, government and education stakeholders to work as one to make government schools more productive rather than taking students to private schools and leaving the rest of the country’s young minds in impoverished poor learning environments.