INFLUENCE OF POLITICS IN TANZANIA EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Education has been defined in many ways. Nyerere (1967) defined Education has been defined as the process by which a society, through certain formal and informal institutions, deliberately transmits its cultural heritage from one generation to another. On the other hand, education is the process of constant reconstruction of experience, rather than transmission of past values, in order to make it more meaningful and capable of solving present problems also Education is the ongoing process of transmitting knowledge, skills, values and attitudes from one generation to another generation. The political situation in many governments has the great influences to the development of its educational system and sometimes politics can influence educational system to be stagnated.  The following are influences of politics in education sector in Tanzania:

The enactment and implementation of various educational policies, since independence in 1961, the government of Tanzania has attempted several times to reform the educational system to meet the development objectives and generate desired outcomes. For example, the Education for Self-Reliance policy 1967 and Education and Training Policy 1995 by taking a historical view of the role of work-oriented education in primary and secondary institutions. Above mentioned policies, the politics had influence various changes on implementation of these existing policies due to the changes of leadership in the government for instance during the leadership of Julius Nyerere the education was much based on self-dependent or self-employment the changes came after the leadership’s politics of Mkapa and Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, the education prepared individual to be Job seeker not self-dependent (Chekaschool.com. 2017).

Formulation of various educational programme, The Minister of Education and Culture is embarking on a huge programme in order to maintain the good quality of education system of Tanzanian government. For example, The Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP) to ensure that each child should get the best quality education. According to Tzonline.org, (2017) There were 4,842,875 children already enrolled in Tanzanian primary schools during the implementation of that programme, and during the years 2002-2006 there were additional 6,848,692 school-age children, and also Big Result Now (BRN) 2013 according to World Bank (2014), was formulated to insure the good standard of education system in Tanzania. The changes of leaders in the government influenced much the formation of various educational programme due to their politics for example the free education in the politics of John Pombe Magufuli lead to the increase number of student enrollment.

Effect of the adoption of the Structure Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the 1980s, after Tanzania faced with economic hardship which caused with various reasons such the Kagera war forced politics of Tanzania to transformed from politics of socialism to politics of market economy. Education is clearly identified as one of the strategies for combating poverty in that politics, where education was equity by gender and special programmes to enroll and retain girls in schools and colleges and provision of life-skills to all children in schools to combating poverty. Thus political situation resulted to some changes of the education system (Planning Commission. 1982).

The political philosophy of a country has impact on education. The political factor dictates the type of administration the system of education will adopt.  It also underlies the content and component of the education system.  It determines how the system is to operate and function.  For example, a political philosophy on economics emphasizes that there is exploitation of labor by capital and this resulted in class mass. As a political philosophy of Tanzania which was socialism recognizes property as the basis of the economic structure of the state which results in the concentration of civil and legal power in the hands of the property owning class. In such cases, the details of the curriculum were often decided by the Tanzania government and involve functional training of citizens (Cranford. 1976)

Education system is headed by a minister of education, with advice from educators.  But mostly the ministers are a politician, not an educator.  For many years, politicians that make up the Cabinet of ministers agreed how much of the national budget should be given to education. For example, during the leadership of Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete from 28 November 2010 to 5 November 2015 the Minister of Education and Vocational Training of that time was Dr Shukuru Kawambwa who was politician and not an educator, thus the politician use their politics to running educational system (Government of Tanzania. 2008)

Country’s national character in shaping national system of education. There is close relationship between the national character and the national system of education, Tanzania government has democratic national character, and democracy usually is the political matter as it defined in Oxford University dictionary, (2010) that democracy is political fair and equal treatment of everyone in an organization and their right to take part in making decisions the fight for justice, we see this political matter also  in educational system of Tanzania, mostly educational institutions running their education in democratic way.

            Generally, the development of Tanzania education has passed into three phases pre-colonial phase, colonial phase and post-colonial phase, actually both phases the political situations has lot influences on the development of Tanzania educational system. For instance, in Pre-colonial education, education was mostly informal which engaged also on the political practice of the community like skills which were given children which prepared them to be good leaders in the community. In Colonial Educational system the colonial government established schools for attain black men to work on their colonization process.

REFERENCES

Cranford, P. (1976) The Critical Phase in Tanzania 1945-1968: Nyerere and the Emergence of a Socialist Strategy: New York: Cambridge University Press,

Chekaschool.com. (2017). History of Education in Tanzania | Cheka School. [online] Available at: http://chekaschool.com/about/history-of-tanzania-education/ [Accessed 6 Jan. 2018, 10:56 am].

Nyerere, J. (1968) Freedom and Socialism. A Selection from Writings & Speeches, 1965-1967, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press.

Planning Commission. (1982). Structural Adjustment Programme for Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: Government Printer.

"THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA - NEW CABINET" (pdf). www.parliament.go.tz. Government of Tanzania. February 12, 2008. Retrieved January 06, 2018, 12:36. Hon. Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa, Science, Communication and Technology

Tzonline.org. (2017). EDUCATION SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME. [online] Available at: http://www.tzonline.org/pdf/educationsctordevelopment1.pdf [Accessed 6 Jan. 2018 11:18].

University dictionary, (2010) Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 8th edition, UK: Oxford University Press.

World Bank. 2014. Tanzania - Big Results Now in Education Program Project. Washington, DC; World Bank Group.