Where are female students in Tanzania's higher education levels?

Dar es Salaam. The country’s struggle in achieving gender equality as well as women and girls empowerment being one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remains more of a myth rather than the truth.

This is despite the many initiatives aimed at ensuring that equal opportunities are provided to all in different sectors.

However, the initiatives to reduce the inequalities gap in the opportunities between males and females still remain unimpactful in the country’s education sector as revealed by government statistics.

The Basic Education Statistics (BEST) report 2021 prepared by the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government as well as a survey conducted by The Citizen shows that there are fewer female students as one climbs up the ladder of education. For instance, the 2021 data shows that 50.4 percent of pupils enrolled for Standard One were girls as compared to 49.6 percent boys. The reports also show that there are six more girls in every 100 Form One to Form Four students in secondary level in the country.

However, upon reaching advanced level of secondary education (Form Five and Form Six), the data shows that this is the turning point, whereby in every five students, three, which is equivalent to 56 percent, are male.

The trend continues to tertiary levels where the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) report shows that in every 25 students there were three more males than females.

According to available data, in 2018 females accounted for 50.1 percent in primary school enrolment as compared to 49.9 percent male, while in Form One to Form Four the percentage was maintained at 51.5 percent and 48.9 percent female and male respectively.

However, the situation changed upon reaching forms Five and Form Six where males dominated by 57.9 percent as compared to 42.1 percent female.

Furthermore, reports show that the situation was serious at university level where more than 60 percent admitted were male.

That means for every five students admitted for university education in 2017/18, three or more were as compared to their female counterparts.

Statistics suggest that one in 260 female students are likely to reach universities, as the remaining may drop out for different reasons in between Standard One and university.

Female graduates

The ‘Vital Stats 2020’ report by TCU shows that more female students were admitted to different courses in 2020, but only three courses had a large number of females out of 17 fields of studies provided by various universities.

They include business studies comprised with 5,012 females as compared to 4,561 males; medicine and health sciences with 2,826 females than 2,799 males.

Physical sciences and mathematics was another field of study with 288 females as compared to 140 males marking the difference exceeding half the students.

Females students taking science courses in universities

The 2020/21 academic year was the worst for females because it’s only in one field of Library, Archive and Museum Studies where they outnumbered their male counterparts.

According to available statistics, female students were 267 more as compared to male peers (861 female against 594 male students).

However, it has been established that science subjects are still the hardest nuts to crack among female students with the gap clearly being shown by the ratio of male to female students in the fields of engineering wherein every five students only one was female.

Other courses with fewer female students are Mining and Earth Sciences where only one-third of students were female, figures that correlate with those recorded in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics as well as Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Life Sciences Tourism and Hospitality Studies and Agriculture have also been noted to have fewer female students as compared to males at 2:1.

What experts say

Tanzania Education Network (Tenmet) Programme manager Nicodemus Eatlawe attributed female students’ dropouts at the secondary school level to biological changes taking place in their bodies and other social factors.

“In the education hierarchy, many girls quit school after failing Form Two Assessment Examinations. This leads to the declining number of female students as the education ladder climbs up,” he said. He noted that in rural areas adolescent girls face numerous challenges including lack of menstrual hygiene facilities such as sanitary pads, forcing them into marriage in order to acquire them from their husbands.

Mr Eatlawe suggested that in-depth research should be conducted to come up with other reasons which deny girls the opportunity to proceed with education to university level.

For her part, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TNGP) executive director Lilian Liundi attributed girls’ dropouts with increased domestic chores as compared to their male counterparts.

“Most of the girls study in day public schools. The African culture and tradition subjects them to several household chores and yet they are supposed to pay attention in school assignments,” she said suggesting the government come up with gender-inclusive budget in the education sector.

“The budget will significantly empower female students to continue with education even during menstrual period through provision of sanitary pads free of charge,” she said.

The executive director of Shenmo Tanzania, Ms Juliana Marko, an organization that promotes females in the engineering field attributed early marriage to increasing girls dropouts from schools as the education ladder goes up.

“Many African parents feel that if a girl gets higher education, she will abandon issues of early marriage which is the culture of some Tanzanian tribes,” she said.

She said the law that forces parents to enroll every child that has reached the age of going to school was the reason for flocking students in primary levels of education as compared to the decrease in number as the ladder goes up.

Ms Juliana suggested that provision of self-awareness education to girls especially concerning their future was important.

“Self-awareness education should be provided to girls in order to make them understand importance of getting higher education and benefits of a bright future ahead,” she said.

Efforts to reach senior executives of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to shade light on what is being done to address the situation proved futile yesterday.