Printable version from NI Global Issues for Learners of English:
Education in Tanzania:
Can you afford to go to school?Young Reporters from Children's Express visited Tanzania
Five young journalists, aged 13 - 17 from the international news service, Children's Express, went to Tanzania. They wanted to find out what effect debt repayments were having on the country.
One of the most important effects they found was that too many children couldn't afford to go to school. Tanzania spends 6 times more money on its Debt repayments to the developed world than it spends on the entire country's education budget.
This is an adapted version of the young journalists' report.
JOURNALIST: someone who writes news reports
NEWS SERVICE: an organization that gathers news stories.
DEBT REPAYMENTS: money that goes for paying back money that has been borrowed.
A street child in Dar-es-Salaam
Kasim Masu is 9 years old and he sleeps on the streets, on a step outside a shop.
We met him at the Youth Cultural and Information Centre in downtown Dar-Es-Salaam The Youth Cultural and Information Centre (YCIC) aims to help young people like Kasim to get an education, develop their skills, and take control of their lives. Most of the YCIC's money comes from overseas organizations like Christian Aid and Comic Relief.
It was 7 am when we met Kasim, and he was ironing his school uniform. Kasim had taken pre-school literacy classes with YCIC, and he now gets a grant from them so that he can attend school. Elementary school fees are $16 a year or more, which makes it difficult for street kids and other poor children to afford to go to school. Yet the thing that Kasim wants most is a good education. The same thing was true for all the young people we met.
Kasim's ambition is to be clever and to become a pilot. Oliver (one of the reporters) said:
"It was as though it was his dream literally to fly away from his current life, and he saw education as the way to do it. At one point he felt he'd be able to do it, then he said he wouldn't [be able to achieve his ambition], and then he said he would again. I don't really know what to think of his chances."
CHRISTIAN AID and COMIC RELIEF are charities.
IRONING: to smooth clothes (using an iron)
SCHOOL UNIFORM: special clothes that all children at a school wear.
PRE-SCHOOL: school-like care given to young children (3, 4 or 5 years old)
LITERACY: the ability to read
GRANT: money given for a special purpose
STREET KIDS: children with lots of experience deally with the hard life of big cities. Many of these children are homeless.
Little money - poor facilities
Although the children really want to learn, the lack of money for the education budget makes learning difficult.
"There are about 40 children in my class. We have some pencils, chalk and exercise books. But we have no sports equipment, there's graffiti in the toilets and there is no glass in the windows.
"We don't have enough, but we just keep going with what we have. Parents pay for some things, but the government should pay for it all because they have more money than parents like mine. If parents can't pay for equipment, you get expelled from school. I have friends who haven't been able to pay their fees. That makes me feel bad."
KasimWhen we asked Kasim how he would like to improve his school, he didn't ask for very much:
"I would like a bigger classroom with an electric fan and more desks. I want to be more comfortable."
FACILITIES: equipment, buildings, supplies
GRAFFITI: things written or painted on walls
EXPEL: force to leave
Other problems
The cost of schooling and the lack of facilities are not the only things that make learning difficult. If children are not enrolled in school by the age of seven or eight years, they are not allowed to start. We couldn't find out the reason for this rule, but it certainly saves money on the education budget!
Hunger
Hunger is another serious problem. Lack of good nutrition affects children's ability to learn. Children like Kasim eat far too little, and have no chance of getting a balanced diet. Kasim has only one meal a day.
"I eat nothing until I go home when I have ugali [porridge made from flour and water]. I would like to eat more, but that's what I get, so that's enough. I eat the same thing every day with seven of my friends. If I can't pay, sometimes my friends pay. Otherwise, I go without."
Kasim
ENROL: make a child a member of a school
A BALANCED DIET: a regular pattern of eating that provides everything one needs for good health
GO WITHOUT: to not have something
Teenaged prostitutes at the port
Next we talked to some teenaged girls who live in rusting iron container ships in the harbour. They are prostitutes, and they manage to make just enough money to live.
We asked them:
"Is there a way for you to stop being prostitutes?"They replied:
"No. There isn't because we haven't been to school. We can't do anything else."PROSTITUTE: someone who has sex for money
TEENAGED: between the ages of 13 and 19
RUSTING: becoming covered with rust, the reddish-brown layer on iron that has been wet for a long time
A CONTAINER SHIP is a ship designed to carry large metal boxes
Not enough money for an education
Some of the girls have never been to school because their families do not have enough money. Others had to leave school when they were younger because one of their parents died.
One of the girls who used to go to school told us:
"When we did go to school, we didn't have uniforms, we didn't have books, we didn't have pencils. We didn't have anything to make us happy. We wanted to be like the others. We wanted to be able to compete with the others who go to school, with uniforms and things like that."
Dreams and reality
Even though the girls have no opportunity to go to school, they really want an education so that they can make their lives better. They told us:
"We would like to proceed with our schooling. We would like to study in America. We don't know anything about it. We just know that the white people we see coming from America have a good life. It would be better if we were there. Here it is a hard place, a horrible place."
What about their real future, rather than their dream future? One of the girls told us:
"We would like to move on, but we don't have the chance to. We don't know how we see our future. The way we live means we can't predict it."
UNIFORM: the special clothes that all children at a school wear.
COMPETE WITH: to try to be as successful as someone else (or more successful than someone else)
PROCEED WITH: continue
The Streetside School
We also went to Morogoro, a large town about 4 hours' drive from Dar-Es-Salaam There, we visited the Streetside School, which gives primary education to about 60 poor children. This school, like YCIC, gets its money from foreign aid agencies. It is run by a psychologist and social worker called Victor Mulimila.
At first, it was difficult for Victor to win the confidence of the local children and their families, and to persuade them to come to school.
"We would walk the streets looking for kids and people shouted at us. People said we were thieves, that we wanted to keep their kids. The children would run away and cry, thinking we wanted to take their lives. Now that's all changed, but there are still lots of kids who need help."
FOREIGN AID AGENCY: an organization set up with money from foreign governments to help the people in poorer countries
PSYCHOLOGIST: a professional concerned with mental and emotional problems
SOCIAL WORKER: a professional concerned with helping people deal with problems like poverty, housing and jobs
A real classroom soon
Right now, Victor's school is an open yard, where the children sit on building blocks, and lessons have to be cancelled in the rainy season. But very soon the school will move into a real classroom. And there is finally enough money to pay Victor, too.
We were impressed by how motivated the pupils were. Duane commented:
"They know what to do and how to get on with their work. I looked at their maths books and they had so many questions right! You can see from what they do and the way they speak that they are learning."
Some kids drop out to work or beg
Unfortunately, the school does not solve everything for these children. Victor explained:
"We've noticed that, slowly, some kids have stopped coming. When you enquire about that, you find that most of those children are the breadwinners for their families. They are sent out on to the street to look for whatever they can find to feed the family at home.
"We want to find money to give loans to the parents so that they can start doing things that earn an income for the family. This would enable the children to come to school instead of going back on the streets to beg."
RAINY SEASON: a time of year when it rains especially much
BE IMPRESSED: feel admiration
MOTIVATED: working hard with a purpose
BREADWINNER: the person in a family who makes the money that the family needs
DROP OUT: stop going to school
BEG: ask for money as a gift
Who is to blame?
Victor is angry that the government does not help.
"It seems as if the government has withdrawn its obligation to these people, as far as social services like education are concerned."
But he is even more angry with the rich countries because they continue to demand that poor countries pay high interest on their debts, which means that the poor countries cannot provide basic services for their people.
"What we collect from taxes and other sources of income, we use to pay back our debts. Social services have been getting worse because all the money which is supposed to pay for them is being paid to rich countries.
"The way I see the future, it's getting worse. We will be dying. The rich countries have to forgive all the debts - not just of Tanzania, but of all Third World countries. If they want to help, they shouldn't apply conditions that exploit us."Why does the international community act this way? Who are they trying to help?
SOCIAL SERVICES: organizing govermental programs concerned with poverty, health, education
If you pay HIGH INTEREST on a DEBT, you have to pay a lot of money back on the money you have borrowed.
What does the World Bank say?
We spoke to the country representative for the World Bank in Tanzania, a white westerner called Ronald Brigish.
We asked Brigish:
"What would happen if the Third World Debt were cancelled?"His reply:
"Very little one way or the other. The finances of the Bank would be very badly affected and we would eventually cease to exist."He didn't say anything about people; about the poor children like Kasim, or the girls who have to be prostitutes to stay alive.
Nothing about what's right and what's wrong - only economics.
THE WORLD BANK gets its funds from developed countries and provides loans to developing countries.
Then we asked him:
"How do you think World Bank policies affect the lives of street kids?""We don't know, quite frankly,"
he said.He told us that it is the job of individual communities to decide whether poor children can have free schooling. He said that kind of system is fair and protects the poor. However, he finally agreed that maybe that system does not take care of children like Kasim.
We pointed out that there are more and more street children every day, and the system will not help any of them. He agreed, but he seemed to think that it wasn't important.
We disagree!
The World Bank may not care what happens to these children, but we do.
We think it's time for things to change.
AFFECT: have an influence on
Adapted from the article, Class Wars, by Oliver Robertson, Amina Kibria, Juanita Rosenior, Duane O'Garro & Kierra Box in the August 1999 issue of the New Internationalist
©1999, 2000: the New Internationalist
NI Global Issues for Learners of English > Issues > Africa > Education in Tanzania
Last Modified: 30 December 2000