Tanzania has made significant progress in achieving the goals of basic education for all, especially with respect to increasing enrollment over the past 10 years, but student learning is lagging due to large class sizes.

The government and partners are working to address persistent challenges, including poor school conditions, teacher shortages, and teacher effectiveness, in systemic and sustainable ways.

GPE is supporting Tanzania to achieve transformational change in its education system by drawing on the breadth and strength of the partnership. In line with GPE's operating model – GPE 2025 – the government established an inclusive task force to review sector performance, develop a deeper understanding of obstacles to reform, and identify priority reform areas.

Priority reform: Teacher workforce planning and management

Based on the country-led assessment underpinned by sector dialogue, the government and its partners agreed on three priority reform areas: teacher workforce planning and management; gender equality and inclusion; and the teaching and learning environment.

Teacher workforce planning and management has been identified as the overarching priority due to its potential transformative effect on the other reform areas.

A key element of GPE 2025 is the development of a Partnership Compact, which articulates how the government intends to work with partners on its priority reforms. The compact also serves as the basis for determining GPE grant resources by partners and mobilizing additional resources.

Ultimately, Tanzania is working to ensure that all children are enrolled in the appropriate levels of education and are achieving the desired knowledge and basic skills.

The Partnership Compact will contribute to this goal by improving teaching and learning, starting with getting the right number of well-motivated teachers, with the right skills, deployed to the places where they are needed. Planned interventions aim to:

• Strengthen teacher planning
• Improve teacher education curricula at all levels
• Improve teacher recruitment and deployment strategies
• Sustain teacher continuous professional development processes
• Improve teacher motivation and accountability.

To further catalyze transformative change in Tanzania's basic education system, a focus on gender equality and inclusion aims to improve female participation in education and support students and teachers with special needs; and a focus on the school teaching and learning environment aims to improve budget allocation and availability of teaching and learning materials and facilities.

Moving forward on the pathway to system transformation

Tanzania – a GPE partner since 2013 – is building on years of having implemented a results-based program, which has already resulted in big gains: improved girls’ transition rates from primary to lower secondary school and a recent reversal of a policy banning pregnant girls from attending school are examples of system-wide progress.

But the country recognizes the need to accelerate progress and believes achievement of its objectives relies on harmonized efforts supporting inclusive teaching for quality learning.

Tanzania’s Partnership Compact is a living document and will be updated as needed. Throughout implementation, updates to the compact will draw on ongoing sector planning and policy processes to ensure priorities are aligned to national plans and policies. A mid-term review will assess progress in key areas of the compact.

The compact includes monitoring, evaluation and learning elements for tracking progress in the reform area, which enables course correction as more is learned about what is happening in the system. With partners and resources aligned behind priority reforms, Tanzania has strengthened its commitment to providing students with quality learning.