BRN ‘success’ in education queried

Inadequate number of teachers in both primary and secondary schools; lack of learning and teaching materials in public schools; no in-service teacher training opportunities; no staff houses; low salaries and above all, lack of modern educational infrastructure. This was the situation of Tanzanian schools until 2012, before Big Results Now (BRN) initiative was launched.

Now, one year after, the question is: has the education sector improved in terms of quality? Not really, at least according to the assessment conducted a local non-governmental organisation with a bias towards education, HakiElimu.

Yesterday, the NGO said the much-touted Big Results Now, insofar as education is concerned, has failed to attain the aspired goal.

HakiElimu’s verdict comes at a time when International Review Panel (IRP) is also reviewing the entire BRN programme in the education sector during the past two years.

BRN set the following targets: to increase the pass-rate of students at both primary and secondary schools by between 60 and 70 per cent; to give education subsidy to all students as agreed in the budget; to train 19,035 teachers in education management skills; to train additional 12,300 teachers in early childhood education; to build 500 houses for secondary schools teachers; to repair infrastructure in 1,200 public secondary schools and to ensure there are enough textbooks to students at both primary and secondary schools.

HakiElimu says that though there was some progress, especially in the pass rates, the BRN failed to meet targets during the past two years.

Under BRN, the number of students who passed their exams at secondary level increased by 58 per cent in 2013, from 50.6 per cent recorded in 2012. The target was to increase the pass rate by 70 per cent.

At primary school level, the number of pupils who passed their final national exams increased to 50.6 in 2013, from 30.7 per cent achieved in 2012—before BRN.

According to HakiElimu, despite the progress achieved in secondary education, the situation was still pathetic at primary school level—which is the foundation of any successful education system.

But, even at the secondary school level, where there were higher achievements in terms of those who passed the national exams, the success was just cosmetic—achieved because the government introduced new grading system that made passing easier.

Critics are likening the new grading system, with someone who expands the dimensions of the goal to enable players to without difficulty.

In terms of subsidy, though every pupil in primary school was supposed to get Sh10,000, at the end only Sh3,580 was doled out. For secondary schools, every student was supposed to get a subsidy of Sh25,000 a year, but only Sh16,384 was released.