Cross Cutting Issues: Gender, HIV/AIDS, Environment, Non Formal Education FE, Special Education, and Capacity Building - 2004 PEDP Review

Gender

Establishing gender parity in the primary education is a national education policy goal. To date girls and women remain a minority in most institutions of learning. Figures from BSE (2004) show that girls are still to achieve parity at primary school (48.8%), secondary school (47.1%) and upper secondary school (34%). It is only at teacher colleges where parity was achieved in 2003, but not sustained thereafter. The 2004 data shows that 47.7% of teacher trainees are female. Analysis of the primary school level data reveals that proportion of girls in total number of pupils enrolled in all schools as well as those enrolling in standard 1 is still below that of boys.  It is difficult to explain the reasons for this fluctuation, but they are probably locally determined. (Access section, op cit).

A number of positive trends were identified during the same period. These include:

Field based observations show that predictability in academic performance between girls and boys appears to be lessening. No longer do girls fit the stereotype of perennial poor performers at Standard 4 or Standard 7. Data from examinations shows performance patterns between girls and boys are becoming less predictable in districts.  For instance, statistics on standard 4 examinations in 2003 in the review regions, shows that more girls passed their examinations than boys in Mbeya, Ruvuma, and Manyara regions, but the opposite reigned in Shinyanga region.

Generally the enrolment of both pupils and teacher trainees experienced a relatively significant change in gender ratios with a steady number of females  taking up more places in teacher colleges (50% in 2003 and 47.7% in 2004)., or stabilising at near parity levels in primary schools. Observations at college level show that the proportion of females among grade IIIA teacher trainees is growing at teacher training campuses (e.g., 60% at Songea Teacher College) more rapidly than the proportion of female grade IIIA teachers outside the colleges (e.g., 41% within Ruvuma region). The promotion of women in representative organs (e.g., school committees and sub-committees) was noted in several of the visited schools, whilst the creation of gender awareness among teaching staff at school level was similarly viewed as one of the achievements at some of the schools.  The Review Team has also noted that the CCITWG at MoEC has issued Guidelines for Mainstreaming Cross Cutting Issues in MoEC, as well as Guidelines for Guidance & Counselling.

 On the other hand the review has observed:

A continued absence of gender parity in most school committees continues, and it would appear that achieving gender equity and meeting the minimum representation quotas recommended by PEDP (e.g., out of the 5 places for representation of community members, at least 2 should be women) is proving difficult to achieve. Nearly all school committees are male led, and of the 25 school committees consulted only Manyara region had a strategy for promoting women as assistant chairpersons.

Another continuing imbalance is the concentration of female teachers in most urban schools which suggests strongly the aversion of female teachers to take aversion to accept placement in rural schools. For instance, over 71% of teachers in Songea Town Council schools are women, unlike Tunduru District Council, a remote district, where only 28% of its teachers are female. Data from BSE shows that nationally 46% of teachers in primary schools are female, as compared to 29% in secondary schools and 27% in Teacher Colleges. However, the RT observed several instances where districts are trying to reverse this trend. For example, in Mbeya Municipality male student teachers are being allocated to urban schools in an attempt to off-set the gender bias.  Male teachers dominate senior positions such as head teachers or deputies in over 85% of schools visited. In Mbinga District, the DEO cited that the district had increased the number of female head teachers from 17 to 29 in the past year as examples of affirmative action.

At teacher colleges, gender is seen essentially as a technical issue with gender issues being embedded within the biology or health based carrier courses. Carrier subjects used for teaching HIV/AIDS education include: primary science (primary school), civics (teacher trainees), general studies (secondary A-level and teachers-diploma level), home economics and biology (secondary schools).

Issues

A gulf exists between the rhetoric on what requires to be done and the reality as regards what is actually being done to address gender relations, and the RT is of the view that gender issues receive more ‘acknowledgement’ than real action. What gains there have been are important, but progress in achieving transformative gender equity in reality is not satisfactory.  Even though most of the schools visited have promoted a gender free division of labour among pupils (e.g., assigning pupils any tasks irrespective of their sex), a look at the division of labour within the school’s organisation and structure reveals that male teachers dominate in most committees and sub-groups that were responsible for management of the schools. Female teachers were responsible for choirs, cleanliness, health, library, store, food, and hygiene among teachers and pupils, whilst males teachers were usually responsible for finances. In one instance at Mlimani Primary School in Katesh where the head teacher is female, financial matters at school and school committee level were controlled by women.  There is a strong need to encourage head teachers, in their capacity as secretaries of the school committee, to urge the school committees to create gender parity in their membership and not to give women members stereotypical roles and functions.

At the district level, District Education Officers should be encouraged to reduce the concentration of teachers from one gender group in any school (e.g., through allocating more student teachers from the less dominant gender group to off-set the sex bias). DEOs should be reminded to promote the appointment of head teachers and their deputies in a manner which ensures increased parity between each gender group.

HIV/AIDS

The review revealed a distressing story:

A Baseline Study on Status of Response to HIV/AIDS in the Education Sector executed in the reviewed year show that only 7% of pupils in primary schools have been exposed to HIV/AIDS education so far. 30% of students at the secondary school level and 50% of teacher trainees have similarly been exposed to such education. A tenth of teachers (12%) at primary school, and a fifth of those at secondary school have had exposure to HIV/AIDS education. Only a quarter of Tutors in Colleges have been exposed to the MoEC HIV/AIDS education.

HIV/AIDS at school level is not well understood, and little is known about the knowledge, attitudes and practices of pupils, students and teachers. The extent of HIV infections and AIDS among the different groups in the education sector is not known nor are the findings of various studies readily available. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS related diseases and symptoms among teachers is rising alarmingly (e.g., the RT observed that in Mbozi district at least 5 teachers die each month from AIDS related diseases or causes). Projected nationally this would give an annual attrition rate of 4.7% of teachers. It is known that districts differ, but an optimistic rate would still place it at about 3.5% annually.

Districts have no reliable data on the number of staff or pupils affected by HIV/AIDS Numbers of orphans are increasingly high in some districts and schools. In the absence of reliable data, it is difficult to estimate precisely the average number of orphans in schools, but based on estimates gathered by the RT, a figure of between 3 and 8% was arrived at. Ruvuma region has over 8% of the pupil population designated as orphans. The RT found it difficult to get tangible data while visiting schools and councils. Moreover, data on HIV/AIDS in the education sector is similarly difficult to access even at MoEC, NACP (National AIDS Control Programme) and CUT (Teacher’s Union of Tanzania). Increasing proportions of orphans in schools can be used as a probable proxy indicator of HIV/AIDS and its impact in the immediate school environment and community, and Districts should be encouraged to keep accurate and detailed records of the number of orphans in each school. When this was suggested to District officials it was pointed at that defining an orphan was unclear and that the proportion of orphans might also reflects a corruption of the definition to secure assistance.

Most districts have appointed HIV/AIDS co-ordinators and in each school at least one teacher is responsible for health education, which includes dealing with HIV/AIDS. The review found that most co-ordinators have meagre knowledge of the actual number of people infected in their schools.  Moreover, the MoEC Baseline Study on Response to HIV/AIDS in the Education Sector shows that responses to HIV/AIDS education vary from school to school, as well as district to district. Interventions on HIV/AIDS at schools appear to depend on the availability of trained teachers, their enthusiasm and the presence of NGOs who target schools (NGOs have to obtain permission from MoEC after submitting their intended programmes). But the study showed that coverage on the ground does not match with reports.

  Less than 5% of school committees interviewed have plans for addressing HIV/AIDS and those that do have them acknowledge that they are inadequate. They have only plans for furniture, construction and production activities. It is clear that the potential of NGOs as regards practical and effective interventions for addressing HIV/AIDS at school level is not being mainstreamed into councils. Councils continue to rely on their own resources when addressing HIV/AIDS. Indeed, Education Circular No.3 of 2002 directed only teachers and teacher trainees to be used for providing AIDS education in classes. The majority of education personnel have not checked their HIV/AIDS status. District education officers state they have inadequate information on deaths caused by HIV/AIDS among teaching staff because death certificates do not provide this kind of information. Just over a third of the districts visited by the RT have prepared and submitted their strategic plans on HIV/AIDS to TACAIDS (e.g., Songea Urban and Rural Districts).

Aids prevention activities were few in the districts reviewed although MOEC reports that sensitisation has been undertaken with about 20% of teachers on HIV/AIDS. The impact of this has not been evaluated. Visits to district offices showed that there is little publicity on indicators on HIV/AIDS status among education staff at the district offices nor is there evidence of collaboration on this with NGOs as well as other relevant partners at the district level.

Addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic is not an option for the GoT. The findings from the four regions visited in this review alone point to a serious threat to the nation, let alone to PEDP, unless are adopted. To the RT, this is not just about ‘throwing money at the problem’ but coming up with active and innovative measures, and tapping into relatively successful initiatives undertaken in the East African region[1] and elsewhere. The RT sees the need to harmonise activities and interventions between MoEC, NGOs and other actors so as to capitalise on experiences and good practices from each side. The focus should be towards continued awareness creation on prevention, as well as on directing more resources to assisting orphans. Entry points should include lower primary, school committees, and councils.  MoEC has issued a Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS in the reported year, although a plan of action has still to be devised.

Non Formal Education (NFE)

Findings

Enrolment of out of school children and the inclusion of children with special needs is a major challenge to the GoT as it is to the majority of sub-Saharan African countries. There are no simple solutions and international experience suggests that the GoT should be realistic in its expectations. Faced with having to choose where to place its resources, governments choose mainstream education. Finite resources, limited capacity and in places lack of political will means that mainstream education and training will continue to receive the bulk of the country’s resources.  During the year under review the NFE Action Plan was finally approved in the third quarter. However, disbursement of funds did not materialise in time for any substantive work to begin.

Overall progress in the area of Non Formal Education has thus been very limited in the period under review. Although faced with more than 552419 potential learners, restricted access to resources has meant focusing mainly on the 11 to 13 year old learners, and sacrificing the 308139 Cohort 2 learners. Among the most limiting factors to development of the NFE area that have been identified are: inadequate funding, poor access to teaching and learning materials, facilities, low attendance of learners, comparatively low performance of girls, and shortage of facilitators.

MEMKWA does not have a high priority in district education plans with district officers arguing that insufficient resources have meant that less than 50% of schools in the districts visited have MEMKWA classes. There are 10075 professional teachers and 10007 Para-professionals that were identified as facilitators for the MEMKWA centres.  School level data is also unreliable with both registration and attendance records incomplete. Currently there are 552419 learners in the Cohort 1 (244280 learners of whom 48% female) and Cohort 2 (308139 learners – 49% female) batches. Some centres have been instructed not to register new learners until those registered complete their studies. (Mbeya Municipality) Attendance of learners at some centres is unreliable (e.g., the number of pupils in centres varies between 3 and 69 in Mbeya Municipality).  

In addition the Review found:

* Very limited funding for MEMKWA classes in the past year. 

*  An absence of teaching and learning materials, as well as that of other teaching related facilities such as suitable classrooms.

* Very little follow-up of, for example, whether seminars attended by district staff or other trained personnel trained earlier at the national level on implementing NFE were actually carried forward at the district level. The anticipated cascade training has not taken place.

* Links between various NGO service providers involved in MEMKWA related work had not been developed or were not functioning.

*  No sensitisation training on implementing NFE at the school level has been carried out, no have intended outcomes been declared.

* In schools where MEMKWA is operating, the classes are small, attendance is irregular and the quality of activities and interventions is poor.

Issues

A critical issue emerging from the RT’s observations is the question, who ‘owns’ NFE, who is taking NFE seriously? Most District Councils argue that the shortage of funding from the centre is the main reason for insufficient progress. The RT are not convinced by this argument, and wish to suggests that reliance and thinking based on external ‘input’ provides an easy excuse to council officials for not acting creatively. Monitoring the output in NFE needs to become part of the National Strategy so that NFE interventions can be tracked regularly at district and national level. Need also clearly exists for enhancing the quality and accuracy of data being collected on NFE implementation so as to enable a proper usage and application of the information amassed.

As with a discussion on most activities at Council level, it depends upon whom one is talking. However, from the end users’ perspective and from schools in particular, there is a lack of coherent planning, transparency and reporting at Council level in respect of the resources available and how they are being used.

Environment

The RT acknowledges that ‘environment’ is a term that provokes a wide range of definitions and nuances, and tends to include reference to the psychological, physical, school, classroom and others. Generally, however, the RT found that most discussions on the environment related to the physical surroundings within and without school buildings. On the environment, improvement of external physical environment and the creation of forums for its management data provided by MOEC and PORALG suggest this is one area where more interventions have been made over the past year, especially with regards capacity building. 

In the past year MoEC has produced Guidelines for Environmental Education, intended for use at primary schools. These are yet to be printed and disseminated. The RT has noticed pleasing improvements in the external physical environment of most schools visited. Most had improved structures that were better than those in the surrounding communities and the immediate school areas were greener and more pleasantly laid out. Many schools had flower beds at their entrances. Statistics from capacity building interventions show that more than half of the capacity building training through PEDP was focused on improving school environments, and nearly all schools visited had engaged in “ujanishaji”, the creation of tree nurseries and planting of trees.  All school committees have an environmental sub-committee, but as in all other areas of school planning and management, written plans and records were poor, and with those that existed, an emphasis on inputs and not outputs dominated them.

The RT were concerned that a wider understanding and application of conservation is absent, and that it needs to be extended to mean not only an application of the external surroundings but also to include environmental issues on the inside of buildings, such as cleanliness in the toilets, water supply issues and dust free surroundings. 

 Special Needs Education

Special Needs Education in Tanzania implies education for children with various disabilities. In a more practical sense, this involves children who are either: deaf, mute, visually impaired, paraplegic, intellectually impaired, albino, and other impairment. The number of children with disability enrolled in primary schools in 2003 was 14114 (5933 or 42% being girls). The review has found that special needs education continues to have a low priority in the overall PEDP plan for much of the same reasons as does NFE. Three new special schools for the deaf have been built in Singida, Mwanga and Hanang catering for children with special needs and the continued collaboration with non government organisations are among the key achievements in the year under review. The sector has received limited funds for Patandi TC, the offices at MoEC, schools and for the purchase of a printing press for the visually impaired.

However, the review has found that teachers and school committees’ members in mainstream schools have a very limited appreciation of the needs of ‘impaired’ children. An inadequate number of teaching and learning materials at schools or in units for special needs children, as well as limited budgetary provision and very low numbers of teacher with special needs experience or training, means that provision is largely a ‘hit or miss’ activity. Special schools for special needs children are not fully resourced from the PEDP funds, and where these schools are supported, Councils usually do so for food and transportation. The DEO’s office in Mwanga is an exceptional example of an authority that used PEDP funds to construct classes and dormitories for the deaf. Involvement of external actors in this area has been optimised through funding from Salvation Army for capacity building of special needs teachers in the past two years (64 million shillings). The Tanzania Society for the Blind directly assisted 22 centres for the visually impaired, whilst the SHUBI Foundation provided audio visual materials. Sight Savers International also provided resources. The RT has learned that in the past year, councils have been issued directives specifying that the construction of special schools, annexes in mixed schools, and units in regular schools (for children with special needs), should be included in council budgets and plans.

The Review Team has noted an increase in the number of units for special children attached to regular schools from 161 to 176, each housing an average of 10 children per unit. The one year Grade IIIA teacher training course now includes some reference to special needs education, but given the nature of the course, at best this can only sensitise trainees to potential issues that may arise in classrooms. Given also the size of most classes being taught across the country, it is perhaps unrealistic to think that much can be achieved at this stage of the student’s training. At best student teachers will notice if any of their pupils exhibit out-of-the ordinary behaviour.

Training of specialist special needs teachers is actually beyond the scope of PEDP and this review, although in the course of the review a visit was made to Patandi Teachers College which is also training Grade A teachers (Appendix 5 provides a brief comment on the College). However, the RT notes that that TPR for children with special needs is at 1:14 instead of the recommended 1:5.   

The Review found that:

*       Most district councils do not possess detailed information and plans for children with special needs at the district level (e.g., they think these schools are for charity organisations and other similar actors).

*         No coherent District level planning which might harmonise the work done by NGOs and the churches.

*         Most inspectorate staff at district level acknowledges that there is an absence of regular planned interventions for addressing the needs of children with special needs.

*         There is evidence of negative attitudes to children requiring special support, and a range of myths about them, as well as a general lack of awareness amongst parents and district officers on the necessity of supporting them.

Extracted from a report titled “JOINT REVIEW OF THE PRIMARY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN (PEDP). FINAL REPORT.” By Richard Mushi – Lead Consultant, Alan Penny – Lead Consultant, Suleman Sumra – National Consultant, Edward Mhina – National Consultant, Fred Barasa – International Consultant, Mwajuma Nyiruka (MOEC); Fred Sichizya (TIE); Geni Migeha (MOEC), Lawrence B. Madege (PORALG); Mbwana S. Magotta (PORALG); Noah Mtana (Morogoro TC) Grace Rwiza (MOEC), Bakari G. Issa (MOEC); Charles P.S. Njawa (MOEC); Zuberi M. Samataba (MOEC

---

[1] The Kenyan Primary School behaviour change programme (PSABH)