The 1977 Universal Primary Education in Tanzania: a historical base for quantitative enquiry

Abstract

This study focuses on the importance of increasing women's education as a result of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and its further impact on improving children's educational access in Tanzania. The study uses data from the 2007 Demographic Health Survey (DHS) for empirical analysis and it is informed by the historical accounts of the UPE reform in 1977–1978. In particular, historical evidence is used to identify cohorts of women in the DHS data, some of whom were likely to be affected by this reform. Empirically, we analyse differences in educational access for children of different cohorts of women. Our results show clear intergenerational benefits that could be due to the UPE reform. But these benefits were not for the cohort of women directly affected by the 1977 UPE reform, but for women who received education a few years after the peak of the reform, once the system could cope with the massive increase in participation and the tradeoff between quality and quantity of education was ameliorated.