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Tanzania wants to help run its private schools

Saturday December 13 2014
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High School students. PHOTO | FILE

The Tanzanian government is preparing a law that will allow it to participate in the running of private schools.

The draft Bill aimed at creating the Basic and Secondary Education Act 2014 proposes that the education minister may, in consultation with the minister responsible for local government, gazette the designation of a private school as public.

The law would provide for such a school to admit government-sponsored students, and for the government to post some of its teachers to the school. A similar model is used in the health sector, whereby the government has posted staff in church-owned hospitals and health centres.

The Bill, which is awaiting tabling in parliament, also proposes the establishment of the Basic and Secondary Education Authority to oversee secondary education, provide the structure for basic and secondary education and special needs education and accreditation.

The secretary general of Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners of Non-Government Schools and Colleges, Benjamin Nkonya, said that after consultations, the draft had been amended to provide that the designation be for a specified period, and after a formal agreement with the owner and approval by the education regulator.

A second round of discussion will be convened by the ministry once it finishes consulting other stakeholders.

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Private schools perform better in national examinations than those run by the government, which charge lower fees. In real terms, however, public schools are more expensive to run due to government procurement procedures and inefficiencies.

The country has 2,700 privately-owned education facilities, which include primary schools, secondary schools and colleges, while the government has 16,000 primary schools and 4,300 secondary schools.

While public primary schools are free, secondary schools cost a parent up to Tsh250,000 ($145) per annum. For private schools, a parent could part with up to Tsh4,000,000 ($2,323) per year.

Government schools in Tanzania are twice as expensive to run as their privately-owned counterparts, reflecting the impact of public procurement procedures on the cost of delivering basic services and goods.

As an example Mr Nkonya said a 1kg packet of maize flour at the government-owned Mpwapwa High School in Dodoma costs Tsh3,500 ($2.03) while the price of the same bag at the Kibaigwa market in the same region is only Tsh450 ($0.26). At the neighbouring privately run Christopher Secondary School, the price for 1kg of maize flour is Tsh300 ($0.173) because the owner negotiates the prices with the Kibaigwa market wholesalers for bulk purchases.

According to Mr Nkonya, whereas the actual unit cost of providing education (primary or secondary) in Tanzania is $1,000, it doubles to $2,000 in government schools.

Mr Nkonya who was discussing the proposed Education Act, said that while the proposal had initially raised alarm bells, in reality it could increase access to education by opening up redundant capacity in private hands.

As per the proposed Bill, designating in relation to service provision refers to the agreement between the government and a private asset owner for the former to use them for service provision.

“Thus, privately owned school buildings may be used by the government to run secondary education programmes. Besides, a person may have the assets but is not interested in managing a school. Under such circumstances, the government may take up the structures and use them to provide education,” said Mr Nkonya.

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