Gender and Education in Tanzanian Schools

Abstract

EDUCATION S. J. Bendera and M. W. Mboya, eds. Gender and Education in Tanzanian Schools. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 1998. Distributed by African Books Collective Ltd., The Jam Factory, 27 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 IHU, UK. ix + 153 pp. Tables. Bibliography. $14.95. Paper. Amy Stambach. Lessons from Kilimanjaro: Schooling, Community, and Gender in East Africa. New York: Routledge, 2000. xv + 206 pp. Illustrations. Photographs. References. Index. $19.99. Paper. These two books make an excellent pair. In different ways, each deals with central tensions between tradition and modernity, between continuity and change, and between the and the Taken together, they offer compelling portraits of the intersection of gender and education in Tanzania. Gender and Education in Tanzania Schools includes chapters written individually and collectively by members of the Women in Education Development Group (WED). It takes an open and deliberate approach to the topic of gender and education at both primary and secondary levels. The authors are explicit about how life-course processes, such as initiation into womanhood, shape girls' experiences at home and in the community, translating into lower performance in primary school and consequendy into circumscribed opportunities for secondary education. In addition, the authors address forthrightly the issue of violence in schools by examining corporal punishment and other repressive forms of discipline regularly imposed on school-age children and youths. They urge that instruction in human rights, as prescribed by the United Nations, be made mandatory. At the same time, they advocate greater participation by women in science, engineering, and vocational fields. Bendera, Mboya et al. frame the discussion in terms of the state. Tanzania is one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa to have achieved near gender equity in primary schools. The abolition of primary school fees in 1973 removed that impediment to schooling, and Education Act no. 25 of 1978 made enrollment and attendance of boys and girls in primary school compulsory. all villages in Tanzania have at least one primary school, and girls make up 49.3 percent of the student population. In many respects Tanzania defies the claim that girls are disadvantaged in terms of education in sub-Saharan Africa. However, as the authors argue, girls and boys have a high level of overage enrollment that is directly tied to cultural norms and practices. Problems are due not simply to age, size, and maturity of pupils, but also to physical, practical, and attitudinal problems surrounding the onset of puberty. Although parental attitudes toward education may not be negative, when difficult choices have to be made, it is girls' education that is sacrificed first. Furthermore, factors such as family poverty, the need for children's labor on farms and in fields, schoolgirl pregnancy, mandatory student participation in a variety of nonacademic tasks (such as raising funds for the school), distance to school, lack of safety for girls in school, and the perennial responsibility of girls for gender-specific tasks such as food preparation and other household chores compound the problems girls face in attaining education. These problems must be understood in light of the wider sociocultural context in which schooling takes place, as well as in light of the structure and environment of Tanzania's educational system. A rich array of statistical tables supports these points and illustrates patterns found across the country. The tables also provide important data on boys' and girls' own perspectives on their education and their patterns of subject selection. These data illuminate the ways in which gender informs-or fails to inform-policy formation at the national level. Amy Stambach, for her part, shifts attention from the state to the local level, bringing us intimately into the world of the Chagga of Machame, Kilimanjaro, in her descriptively rich and analytically enticing book, Lessons from Kilimanjaro: Schooling, Community, and Gender in East Africa. …