The Role of Youth in Strengthening Education in Tanzania

Written by Emmanuel Kavula, Rural Youth Champion from Tanzania, toward International Education Day 2026

In implementing our social responsibilities, we have been contributing to education improvement in the country through village meetings, seminars, campaigns, and visiting school boards and committees. We have also been visiting primary and secondary schools as well as places of worship. Furthermore, we have been visiting families and providing psychological services to students and parents affected by acts of gender-based violence through door-to-door, street-by-street campaigns. Similarly, through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, we have been writing messages about education and its progress, including persuading parents to contribute food to schools.

Our other major responsibilities in society include sharing what we learn with our colleagues inside and outside the country, ensuring we provide education regarding children's rights and gender-based violence, participating in meetings, seminars, using our time to read, participating in various campaigns and workshops concerning education and its systems. Alongside this, raising community awareness about the importance of education, identifying and taking education challenges to relevant places.

Not only that, but ensuring we write success stories digitally, keep records, and provide feedback on the work we do to relevant authorities from grassroots level to national level. These advocacy efforts have made a great contribution to education improvement in the country by attending various meetings from grassroots to national and international levels. For example, a meeting between parents, teachers, and development stakeholders at Masumbwe Primary School held in February 2025 helped push the agenda of contributing school food services.

One of our contributions to education improvement in the country has been visiting school committees and boards with the aim of encouraging the posting and display of school development information on notice boards. In implementing our responsibilities, we succeeded in visiting committees and boards in public primary and secondary schools nationwide, especially in rural areas. For example, Mkapa Primary School in Masumbwe Ward and Kanegere Secondary School in Bukandwe Ward, Mbogwe District, an exercise that took place from December 3, 2025 to December 4, 2025.

Along with the success of this strategy, there are things we were able to identify and see during our discussions with members regarding the posting and display of school development information on notice boards that led members to raise the issue of requesting this exercise to be continuous so they could get sufficient education in implementing their responsibilities. Alongside this, many members did not have awareness about the importance of posting and displaying school development notices on notice boards, including budget and transparency in the use of money provided and sent to schools for education development.

However, this challenge of lack of understanding among members regarding their responsibilities in rural areas led to requesting and emphasizing this exercise to be continuous as it can help address this challenge in other areas in Mbogwe District. Not only that, but during our discussions, members were able to touch on various challenges facing students, including inadequate school infrastructure, including lack of dormitories for female students, which leads to and causes acts of gender-based violence such as rape of female children. Shortage of toilet facilities is another major challenge that was raised by members, which causes student overcrowding in toilets and thus children spending a lot of time when they have gone to the toilet. This leads to students missing some class periods.

Therefore, the School Notice Board Initiative has helped awaken community accountability in following up on education development. Another contribution has been persuading parents to contribute food to schools such as Kakumbi in Lugunga ward, in Mbogwe. To bring efficiency in implementing school nutrition contracts, we have continued with efforts to persuade parents and development stakeholders, including Ward Executive Officers and Ward Education Officers in all wards, to ensure that in every school students get food at school, and every school implements self-reliance education properly by having food crop farms. Similarly, in another step, we have continued with efforts to persuade education officers and ward executives to ensure they involve parents and guardians by educating them about the importance of the plan to provide food and nutrition services to primary and secondary school students so that parents can contribute food for the benefit of their children.

This matter has been helping to reduce student dropout from 2% to 0.5%, because when children eat at school, teaching time increases - instead of ending at 2:30 PM, they can continue with studies until 5:00 PM. Therefore, students get adequate time to study while at school and have discussions with their peers. Due to the importance of food and nutrition in schools, there is great importance in continuing to strengthen the level of inclusion of life skills and self-reliance education in primary and secondary schools. However, in a society that cares about rights and equality, it is important to understand and recognize children left behind in education to improve their conditions and ensure they get their right to education. It should be remembered that on October 29, 2021, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology launched the National Guidelines for the provision of food and nutrition services to primary school students with the aim of guiding education stakeholders nationwide on the best way to implement food and nutrition services for students.

The Education and Training Policy of 2014 clearly states that providing essential services such as quality food, clean water, and access to health services for students in schools is important. We have also participated in the improvement of the Education and Training Policy of 2014, 2023 edition, with the aim of encouraging the community to accept changes in education. Through community mobilization, we participated in improving policy and curriculum changes by volunteering to conduct a community education program about choosing and developing student talents in public primary and secondary schools, as well as how students can employ themselves through entrepreneurship, especially beekeeping, beauty services, fish farming, and garden crop farming using greenhouse technology. We succeeded in providing education to the community about improving the value chain from bee products through special seminars in Masumbwe Ward in June 2022, Nyakafulu Ward in May 2022, Iponya Ward in April 2022, Bukandwe Ward in March 2022, and Mbogwe Ward in July 2022 in Mbogwe District. Therefore, the implementation of this program has helped prepare students and the community in general to receive curriculum improvements that have already started being implemented from 2024, as the draft improvements touched on and discussed various issues including entrepreneurship, beekeeping, beauty services, agriculture, and so on.

Another contribution has been participating in budget processes in the country. Local government authorities work through a committee system from the grassroots level to the top level. Bodies with final decision-making are council assemblies and general village meetings. In implementing our responsibilities, we have been participating in the budget process in the country. In the stages of budget preparation, budget approval, implementation, and accountability, we have been participating by attending meetings. For example, the village general meeting, through the position of elected members and representatives from civil society organizations and other social groups or organizations, council assembly - we have been giving opinions, ideas, and arguments in budget preparation and planning. Alongside this, meeting and talking with village and ward executives as well as councilors, we have been providing statistics from different areas of primary and secondary schools in rural areas about the importance of sustainable financing in the education sector and unequal distribution of education resources, especially in rural areas. Similarly, through the budget parliament, we have been good followers to know the amount of funds allocated to each region and council.

This has been helping in implementing our responsibilities, especially in the stage of budget implementation and accountability. We have also been visiting public primary and secondary schools with the aim of identifying challenges to be able to get solutions. In implementing our responsibilities for 2025, we succeeded in visiting public primary and secondary schools, especially in rural areas. For example, we succeeded in visiting 15 public primary and secondary schools in Mbogwe District, including primary schools Kakumbi, Mapinduzi, Kasandalala, Mkapa, Shenda, Iponya, Bulugala, Mlange, Kasaka, Bulilila, and Nyasato. On the side of secondary schools are Kakumbi, Bugegere, Iponya, and Nyasato.

This exercise took place from July 22, 2025 to July 25, 2025. In that exercise, we were able to look at and see various things, including the number of teachers in 15 primary and secondary schools where Iponya Primary School in Iponya Ward has 13 teachers - 8 male, 5 female. Shenda Primary School in Masumbwe Ward has 12 teachers - 8 male, 4 female. Iponya Secondary School in Iponya Ward has 19 teachers - 15 male, 4 female. Bugegere Primary School in Nyakafulu Ward has 12 teachers - 2 female, 10 male. Kasandalala Primary School in Nyakafulu Ward has 29 teachers - 16 female, 13 male. Bulugala Primary School in Nyasato Ward has 11 teachers - 5 female, 6 male. Kasaka Primary School in Nyasato Ward has 6 teachers - 3 male, 3 female. Nyasato Primary School in Nyasato Ward has 8 teachers - 2 female, 6 male. Mlange Primary School in Nyasato Ward has 7 teachers - 1 female, 6 male. Bulilila Primary School has 8 teachers - 3 female, 5 male. Nyasato Secondary School in Nyasato Ward has 16 teachers - 12 male, 4 female. Mapinduzi Primary School in Lugunga Ward has 10 teachers - 2 female, 8 male. Kakumbi Primary School in Lugunga Ward has 13 teachers - 4 female, 9 male.

Kakumbi Secondary School in Lugunga Ward has 9 teachers - 7 male, 2 female. Along with seeing the challenge of teacher shortage in schools, the number of students being large compared to the number of teachers in schools, the rate of estimated teacher departures from schools each year is 1 percent to 2 percent. Various reasons for teachers leaving schools have been contributed by various things, including teachers following their colleagues, teachers retiring, and teachers changing work environments from rural to urban areas. Another contribution has been following up on school development projects with the aim of addressing the challenge of inadequate school infrastructure. During the data collection exercise in public primary and secondary schools, especially in rural areas in 2023, the challenge of inadequate school infrastructure and shortage of toilet facilities had an impact on teaching and learning as students were encountering difficult environment challenges, including examination leakage caused by large overcrowding of students in classrooms.

Not only that, but teachers failing to reach every student during the lesson period. In Mbogwe District, we succeeded in submitting the challenge of inadequate school infrastructure at Lugunga Primary School in Lugunga Ward, Mbogwe District, to the Lugunga Ward Executive Officer, Lugunga Ward Education Supervisor, and the Executive Director of Mbogwe District Council. Similarly, in a meeting between education stakeholders and government authorities held in September 2023 in Dodoma city, we succeeded in submitting this challenge to the President's Office - Regional Administration and Local Government where the government made a commitment to ensure it follows up to ensure completion of classrooms at Lugunga Primary School.

Due to these advocacy efforts in the education sector, we thank the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania for achieving the completion of classrooms at Lugunga Primary School because until now students continue to use those rooms in teaching and learning. However, it is important for the government to continue providing guidance and building understanding for parents on how to construct school infrastructure, especially when it requires citizen effort in initiating classroom construction.

Thank you for your attention! Asante sana!