School Support

We’ve had a few schools following our progress as part of their studies, namely Mrs Ripley’s P6/P7 group at Newtonhill School, and Mr Keen’s Hawking House class at John of Gaunt School in Trowbridge. So a big thank you for your interest and support! In light of this we thought we’d do a short blog on the school systems out here, mostly based around the Tanzanian system which we have the most knowledge of. 

Education is hugely important for the young generations in East Africa, and as the countries continue to develop commercially, language, numeracy and literacy skills are becoming increasingly valuable. Primary school is generally compulsory and children generally start at 5 years old, although children can start at any age leading to mixed age classes. Whilst both Tanzania and Malawi offer free ‘state’ primary schools, costs such as uniform and books must be provided for. Virtually all schools have a uniform and pupils are smartly dressed, obviously taking pride in their education. 

Smartly dressed children on the way to school

State secondary schools are available in Tanzania, where teenagers can continue their education providing they pass their exams. The system is uncompromising, and should any pupil fail their exams they are dismissed from the school and as a result not allowed to enrol in any other state school. The alternative in this case is private school, which costs in the region of $100 per term, which compared to an average daily wage of $3 can be prohibitively expensive. The additional difficulty faced by pupils on their secondary education is the change in teaching language- whilst the primary years in Tanzania are taught in Swahili, as soon as pupils reach secondary school all lessons are taught in English! 

In Malawi, primary education is provided free for all children up to 13 years old. However, to continue beyond this point even the Government schools are fee-paying, with fees of around $50 per term, which includes all uniform and books, etc. Whilst this seems comparatively cheap, a café worker who we discussed the system with told us this was equal to his monthly wage, working 5 days per week.   

More interesting than school... two tourists with a camera!

So, compared to the average child in the UK the difficulties faced here are significant. Providing a child can pass all their exams, and parents can afford the necessary uniform and equipment, a suitable education can be gained. The pupils then have the opportunity to go on to further training colleges and potentially decent job prospects. If the pupil stumbles at any of the numerous hurdles, and cannot afford the fees for a private school, their job prospects for the future will be seriously limited. 

For governments trying to provide for their ever increasing populations, the challenges are equally as difficult. Teachers come from a variety of backgrounds and have differing experience of education and teaching experience.  Governments have responded by creating teaching colleges, although, due to the backlog, many will continue in the classroom for several years before getting a place on a teaching course.