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Background

Education has long been a priority in the socio-economic policies and development strategies in Zanzibar. Strengthening of the education system was a central goal of the Revolutionary Government. In September 1964, a policy of "Free Basic Education" was declared. The government's aim was to make education more equitable by addressing imbalances and disparities in its provision.

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports is responsible for planning, developing policies and policy guidelines, and setting of standards for quality assurance. In collaboration with parents, communities, civil society organizations, private sector and other development partners, the Ministry ensure delivery of quality education to all children, including financial and material contributions for the construction and maintenance of schools.

The education system is divided into: Pre-primary (4-6 year olds); Primary school has 7 grades; Secondary school (3 years of lower secondary including one year of orientation and 2 years of upper secondary); High school (2 years); Tertiary institutions; and University. In addition, there is a Non-formal and Adult Education department. This is important since illiteracy rate is still at about 40%. This sub-sector targets out-school population of 15 years and above.

Education Financing

The education sector has been accorded high priority in total government spending, second only to economic and financial services. The government allocates 3% of GDP and over 10% of total government spending to education. Like in most other African countries, 90% of the recurrent expenditure is in form of personnel salaries, while that of capital expenditure is low, at about 9%. As a result, there are limited resources for core activities that uphold quality such as teacher development, improved teaching and learning materials, schools inspections and professional teacher support. Limited capital expenditure inhibits the expansion of capacity, mainly construction of new schools, additional classroom, sanitary facilities, teachers' houses and supplying basic furniture and equipment.

Access and Participation in Education

Pre-school

Pre-school education is provided by the government as well as private organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), faith-based organizations, communities, associations and individuals. This collaborative effort not withstanding, access and participation at pre-school level remain low. The Gross Enrollment Ratio -was as low as 12.7% in 2001 out of an eligible population of around 103,827 children, aged 4-6 years.

In 2004, there were 181 pre-schools: 24 government; 157 privately owned, of which 65 were community-based Madrasa organized by the Aga Khan Foundation. The pre-schools enrolled 15,601 children, representing 13.8% of the eligible population. In addition, there are 1,355 Quar'anic madrasa classes.

The service provider selects and hire pre-school teachers, the majority of whom are untrained. Also, the various organizations use different teacher in-service training approaches as well as different pre-school curricula. The inevitable outcome is a diversity in quality and school readiness.

Basic Education: Primary and Secondary Schools

Basic education statistics show that Gross Enrollment Ratio is high, being 100.3% and the gender parity rate was 0.96. This implies there are over-age and under-age children enrolled at this level, whose target population is 7-13 year olds. In 2004, 199,938 children were enrolled. However, in 2002, the Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) was 77.3% for females and 78.7% for males, at an average of 78%. This means 22% of school-age children were not enrolled.

However, participation rates are affected by internal inefficiency indicators. The national drop-out and repetition rates have remained high, at 3.3% and 7.1%, respectively. This explains why the enrollment rate progressively declines from primary to higher (university) education. For example, while 199,938 pupils were enrolled in primary schools, only 59,831 students (29.9%), were enrolled in secondary schools in 2004. Out of these 50.4% were girls, implying a gender parity of 1.0 even at this level. This is despite the governments' commitment to increase transition rate from basic education to 40% by 2001, and to 50% by 2006 (Zanzibar Education Master Plan, 1996-2006). But as the cohorts progress through the education system, the numbers decline quite significantly.

Education Quality: Performance

Factors that Influence Quality

Teachers play a crucial role in determining student outcomes. In 2002, there were 7,633 teachers in the public sector, of whom 4,403 (57.7%) were females. While the system has enough teachers, there is uneven distribution and deployment. A significant number of the teachers are either untrained or under-qualified to teach at the levels or subjects assigned. About 15% of the total teaching force is untrained. While there is overstaffing in favor of art subjects (i.e., Kiswahili, social studies and religious education), key subjects such as English, mathematics and sciences are understaffed. Teachers in the latter category have a heavy teaching load of about 30 periods per week while the former teach an average of only 20 periods per week.

The scarcity of school and classroom facilities is a major problem at both primary and secondary school levels. The classroom-pupil-ratio is 1:80 on average, while in some instances there are over 100 pupils per class. This is despite the policy of double shift in most large schools. A double shift means that teaching time is significantly reduced. Due to shortage of textbooks in almost all subjects, teachers cannot give take-home work to pupils and at times they have to write notes on the chalk board for students. Also, one desk is shared between 5.4 pupils. In practical terms, there are very many pupils who learn sitting on the floor, especially at lower primary level. The toilet-pupil ratio is very high (1:140) compare to benchmark of 1:45.

Performance and Achievement

While major strides have been made in terms of access at the primary and secondary school levels, performance (quality) has remained an elusive challenge, and especially in mathematics, sciences and English.

Only about 3% of pupils who sit for the standard seven examination are selected to pursue secondary education (Form I- Form IV), without sitting for lower secondary education examination in Form II, nor going through the secondary school orientation year. Out of the students who sit for Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) at Form II, only 40% are selected to continue to the second cycle of lower secondary (Form III to Form IV).

In 2003, for example, 3,539 students sat for O-Level national examinations. Out of these, only 987 (27.9%) qualified for admission for Form Five (High School). At the primary school level the number of pupils achieving minimum (55%) and desirable (75%+) levels of reading mastery are 46.1% and 5.2%, respectively, while the mean performance was 43.4% (Education For All Assessment Report, 1999).

Special Needs Education

Several international human rights declarations have been advocating for the rights of children with disabilities to access quality education. With the momentum generated by the World Conference on Education for All (EFA) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), as well as other international declarations, the MOECS introduced special education in 1998. A special needs education unit was established to ensure educational access by children with disabilities. Currently, there are 9 special education units, that cater to children with Intellectual Impairment (II), Visual Impairment (VI) and Hearing Impairment (HI). The total enrollment in these units is 250 learners. Children with physical disabilities learn in regular classrooms. There are many more learners with disabilities in regular classes in various schools. There is one secondary school that admits learners with HI and VI in their regular classes after the later have acquired adequate Braille skills.

Main Challenges

In Zanzibar, out of the estimated number of children and youth with disabilities only 2% of them have access to education of any kind. Some of the main challenges for providing education to children with disabilities are: shortage of trained teachers; shortage of appropriate teaching-learning materials; inadequate supply of teaching tools and equipment for learners with disabilities, inaccessible school buildings (no ramps, narrow corridors and doors, poorly designed toilets); distances from home to the nearest school; negative community attitude towards people with disabilities and low awareness and sensitivity to disability issues by government policy makers and other stakeholders.