Failure by the government to provide sufficient funds for science education, including the budgeted capitation grant, as well as a lack of accountability for results, only exacerbate the problem and could lead to a shortage of scientists in Tanzania in the coming years, Kabendera says.

The article references a Twaweza publication that contends that more qualified teachers would be attracted to and remain in rural and community schools if the government addressed the reasons that currently drive them away. Twaweza Head, Rakesh Rajani, told Kabendera that ‘the country fails because we put more efforts on inputs (classrooms, enrolment and desks)... the amount of money Tanzania spends on education today is three times more than 10 years ago and the country is being praised internationally for increasing enrolment, but evidence shows that increasing inputs doesn’t lead to better results.’

Read the full article on the problems facing ward schools, and science education in particular, here. 

Twaweza is seeking the services of a Monitoring Consultant, for a period of 5-7 months, to strengthen Uwezo monitoring, particularly of its communication and public action components. The specific objectives of the assignment are:

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  To understand Uwezo’s theory of change and current evaluation program and identify its monitoring needs;


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  To review existing information management and monitoring processes elements undertaken at present;


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  To design a clear and robust monitoring system and plan for Uwezo across the three countries and regional office, including workflows of who does what when, practical tools and management reports;


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  To train and support relevant Twaweza/Uwezo staff on why monitoring makes sense and how to do it;


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  To oversee the early implementation/roll-out of the plan.

Uwezo at Twaweza is a long-term year initiative to improve basic literacy and numeracy in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania through an innovative, civic-driven and public accountability approach to social change. Uwezo focuses on enabling policy makers as well as ordinary citizens – i.e. parents, students, local communities and public at large – to become aware of actual levels of children’s literacy and numeracy, and use this awareness to stimulate practical and policy changes to improve learning across East Africa. The work is organized through three country teams, with coordination from the regional management team based in Nairobi. Uwezo is part of Twaweza, a citizen driven initiative to promote citizen agency and improved service delivery in East Africa. 

Read the full Terms of Reference below. 

Nearly half of respondents reported attending a school committee meeting in the previous year. Despite the challenges plaguing the education system in Tanzania, 44 percent of parents said they were happy with the education offered in primary schools.

‘Parents who lack information about essential schooling inputs are not likely to demand or be able to effectively contribute to better teaching and better school conditions for the children, even when they attend school committee meetings,’ the brief says. ‘If parental involvement is crucial to improving children’s learning, improving the quality of public information and public debate may be a good place to start.’

Read the monitoring brief in English and Kiswahili below with more detailed information, as well as the press release for the brief. 

In 93 percent of 88 visits, prescription medicine was sold without a prescription when asked for by name. In 92 percent of 38 visits, prescription medicines were recommended and then sold after the mystery client described her symptoms. In only nine visits of 126 did pharmacies refuse to sell medicine without a prescription from a doctor, and this in only three of the 15 areas visited.  

The results are disconcerting, as citizens could be sold wrong medicines, take incorrect dosages, or develop a dependency on a drug. Yet, in the absence of sufficent and motivated personnel as well as persistent shortages of drugs in the public health services one can see how people have no choice but to seek care directly from pharmacies.

Read the brief below in English or Kiswahili as well as media reports on the findings.

Ease of buying prescription drugs exposed in new report, The Citizen

Checks on pharmacies, The Citizen

The pharmaceutical and motorcar trade, The Citizen

Dawa zinauzwa kiholela - YITA, Tanzania Daima

The Observer says that ‘Despite poor literacy rates, there’s hope for Uganda’s schools.’ Ugandan educational experts believe that the system could be turned around and better performance seen within three years.

The East African talks of an innovative ‘cash on delivery’ model for schools: ‘Peg schools’ funding to literacy, educationists.’ Rather than fund inputs, schools should be funded based on how many students pass literacy and numeracy assessment tests, Twaweza Head Rakesh Rajani told the newspaper. ‘The last thing we should do is more of the same, expecting different results,’ he said. 

Read the reaction from other East African and international media outlets on the 2012 Uwezo report:

Most children in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya fail literacy and numeracy tests, The Guardian, UK

UPE children not learning, says UWEZO report, The Independent

Quality of learning in schools wanting-report, Saturday Nation

Ugandan pupils 'slowest' in the region- report, Saturday Monitor

Survey: Kenyan Schools churning out ‘illiterates’, Standard Digital

Uwezo's 2012 numeracy and literacy test, VijanaFM

Study shows few pupils have literacy and maths skills, The Star

Watch a video of the launch from KTN Kenya here and another video from NTV Kenya with comments from Uwezo Regional Manager Dr. Sara Ruto here. 

'The Social Security Laws (Amendments) (No.2) Act, 2012 has created an unprecedented buzz in the media and among workers this week.

While the law can be described as a bag of mixed blessings, the bad mix seems to have outweighed the good. Three entries in the new Act in particular beg answers as to how the Social Security Regulatory Authority (SSRA) and the Government can claim having acted in the best interests of members and would be members of pension schemes.

By quashing withdrawal benefits there is a higher risk of more people falling into poverty. It is a fact that Tanzania does not have an institutionalised or formal safety net programme for persons who are unemployed and/or lose their jobs.

We hear about food stamps or shelter for homeless in developed countries. But these things are alien to Tanzania. We also know that most people and especially those employed in the non-government sector are at best seasonally employed—on contractual terms that could be as short as six months.

This means that many persons who face prolonged unemployment after losing their jobs, rely on the benefits as their only recourse.

By quashing the right to withdrawal benefits, however, the SSRA and Government have just created conditions ripe for more workers and their families to fall deeper into poverty.

How else would these persons, when jobless, get money to put food on the table, pay their children’s school fees, meet medical expenses just to name a few. Can these needs be postponed to pensionable age?

Raising the voluntary retirement age from 50 to 55 years is a hard sell for workers; and worse still goes contrary to good practice.

To the extent that pension is to help workers during old age, we would expect that the pensionable age should arrive earlier than the life expectancy at birth (expected years of life).

This is the good practice that all well-intentioned governments should emulate. Developed countries would not dare set retirement age past life expectancy age, yet Tanzania does.

Life expectancy at birth in Tanzania in 2009 is 55 on average (males: 53 years) and (females: 58 years). By setting the voluntary retirement age at exactly expected time of death, and the compulsory retirement (60 years) 5 years past the life expectancy date of a typical Tanzanian how can the SSRA and the Government claim to have acted in the best interests of members?

Wouldn’t acting in the interests of the public, given life expectancy today, have required just the opposite: to lower the pensionable age?

How can pensioners be expected to enjoy the fruits of their labour when they are dead? Under these circumstances how can workers refuse to agree with the sentiment that someone somewhere is trying to rip off pensioners the fruits of their labour?

Another reason that makes the decision to raise the retirement age unfounded has to do with the Tanzania’s population pyramid.

There is a large workforce than the elderly and compared to developed countries such as UK and Netherlands, Tanzania can’t claim a problem of sustenance—a larger elderly population compared to the working population. What is the rationale here, if someone can tell us?

Exemptions from conditions of the Act by the President 

When it revoked the right to withdrawal benefits, the Government also introduced a new and more worrisome element in the new law: a discretionary clause, by which workers can get exemptions from the conditions of the Act by applying for it to the President. There are two reasons to worry about this section:

First, it creates a situation that makes it difficult for workers to get their rights: how many can reasonably access legal assistance and petition the President for exemption in a typical year?

Second, it unnecessarily extends operational responsibilities that should be handled by the SSRA to the Head of the State.

Has this been done purposely to make it difficult for workers to use the option? How many requests can the President be expected to handle in a year? Hasn’t He better things to do than involve himself in processing workers benefits? And how do workers in the private sector especially get recourse to this channel?'

View the article here.

According to Dr Sara Ruto, Regional Manager of Uwezo East Africa, ‘Despite significant gains in expanding access to primary schooling, actual literacy and numeracy outcomes remain significantly deficient across the region.’

While all countries do poorly, Kenyan children do relatively better than their counterparts in Tanzania and Uganda on all tests. Ugandan children performed the worst, but overtake Tanzanian students by the time they reach Standard 7. Children from low-income households perform the worst in all three countries and students in private schools do better than those in public schools, particularly in Tanzania.

Despite the discouraging results, there is also cause to be hopeful. Since the first Uwezo results were released, public debate has shifted to focus on quality and learning outcomes rather than educational inputs. Additionally, experiments on innovations in learning are taking place around the globe and can inform reforms in East Africa.

The assessment tested nearly 350,000 children in 150,000 households across the three countries, representing the largest annual data collection effort in education on the continent.

Read the full report here, including the ranking of districts from the three countries. Read the 2011 report here.

Read the reaction from East African and international media outlets on the 2012 Uwezo report:

Most children in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya fail literacy and numeracy tests, The Guardian, UK

UPE children not learning, says UWEZO report, The Independent

Quality of learning in schools wanting-report, Saturday Nation

Ugandan pupils 'slowest' in the region- report, Saturday Monitor

Survey: Kenyan Schools churning out ‘illiterates’, Standard Digital

Uwezo's 2012 numeracy and literacy test, VijanaFM

Study shows few pupils have literacy and maths skills, The Star

Watch a video of the launch from KTN Kenya here and another video from NTV Kenya with comments from Uwezo Regional Manager Dr. Sara Ruto here.