Boarding schools ban: Good intention, bad decision

On March 6, 2023, The Citizen and other media outlets reported that Tanzania banned “boarding for nursery and lower primary schools”, effective March 1, 2023.

ALSO READ: Tanzania bans boarding for nursery and lower primary schools

The directive issued by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology explains that “boarding services for young students deprive children of the opportunity to bond with their families, build values and participate in various activities for the development of their families and communities”.

The intention for banning such schools is good, but the decision is bad for two main reasons.

First, parents should be trusted to know what is best for their children. Rarely would any parent make a decision to send a child to a boarding school lightly.

It is both an emotional and economic sacrifice.

Government intervention is clearly required when children are denied education by their parents, but this is not a case of parents depriving their children of an education. Rather it is parents looking for a learning environment that would be best for their children’s future.

Moreover, what is to be said to those who, given their economic privilege, send their children to boarding elementary schools outside the country?

The government, through the ministries of Health; Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups, and Education, Science and Technology, together with community and religious leaders can and should educate parents about the advantages of having their children at a day school instead of boarding school. However, it is the parents’ fundamental right to decide.

Second, even if the decision made by the government was correct, schools should have been given sufficient time, at least five years, to transition out of providing boarding services.

Boarding schools were not built in secret, and certainly they are not invisible. Each ward has an education officer who works closely with all schools in his or her jurisdiction. Schools prepare and send regular reports to the District Education Officer. These boarding schools existed with the knowledge and approval of the government.

It is completely unfair and unreasonable to shut them down abruptly without thinking about the economic consequences to the owners of the schools and communities where these schools are providing services.

For whatever reason, it does not seem Tanzania has come to terms with private education. Every now and then the government makes an announcement or a decision that seems to look at private schools with contempt.

For example, in December of 2015, the government issued a circular instructing private schools not to increase school fees for the 2016 academic year until they received further instructions from the Commissioner of Education. That directive came rather late for the 2016 school year.

Private schools need to plan ahead and usually do. Thus, most of them had already announced their tuition rates for the coming year.

Whatever position one takes regarding boarding schools for children, the main issues behind the scene are the low quality of education in public schools and the undue emphasis placed on national exams.

If public schools throughout the country provided quality education, demand for private education would be low. Instead, demand for private education is growing.

At the same time, Tanzania’s education system places too much emphasis on results of national exams. Those results determine students’ future.

In deciding a student’s combination for high school, for example, no consideration is given to how a student is progressing, overall, in his or her subjects in regular exams. Everything is based on the results of the Form Four national exam, but these national exams start as early as Standard Four.

One can therefore understand why parents may decide, if they can afford it, to put their children in a boarding school to increase the children’s chances of performing well on the national exam.

This also explains why some parents may have their children in day schools, but put them in boarding schools for the years that they take national exams, Standard Four and Seven.

Banning boarding schools would not solve the fundamental challenges of education quality and the education system in Tanzania. What the government should do is monitor all public and private schools, day and boarding alike, to make sure they meet the required standards.

A recommendation to boarding schools is that they make it easier for parents to visit their children frequently. I can even see the government mandating the visiting policy, since some boarding schools have very restrictive policies.

However, banning boarding schools is wrong, even if the intention is good.