Poverty and Human Development Report 2009 - UNDP in Tanzania

CLUSTER II- GOAL 1
and/or not completing primary school will include the most vulnerable children – the disabled, 28
those living in remote areas, and children for which the opportunity cost of attending school is
high.
Percentage of Primary Cohort Completing Standard VII
The cohort completion rate has dropped from 78% in 2006 to 62.5% in 2008, and a significant
turnaround is required if the MKUKUTA target of 90% is to be reached. Improvements in
routine and survey data collection are needed to better inform strategies to improve retention
and completion:
� BEST captures only limited data on reasons for dropping out of school. In 2008, 69.5% of
children dropping out of school were recorded as doing so because of truancy29 , but BEST
provides no further information about what caused truancy.
� HBS 2007 records reasons for non-attendance amongst 7-13 year olds. Positively, nonattendance
because ‘school is too expensive’ has declined to 5% from 11.7% in HBS
2000/01. In addition, non-attendance by children ‘who are too old or who have already
completed’ jumped from 4.2% to 48.9%, because more children are starting school at the
requisite age or earlier (DPG, 2008). The biggest change is among rural children. Both of
these improvements are attributable to the Primary Education Development Programme
(PEDP). However, an increase in children reporting that ‘school is useless/uninteresting’
is a worrying development – this proportion increased by almost 5 percentage points
nationally while in Dar es Salaam it increased from 2.3% to 24.3%. Research to explore
these widespread perceptions of school would be valuable, to ascertain if school is viewed
this way due to a lack of connection between what is taught and skills development for
youth to secure livelihoods.
Percentage of Students Passing the Primary School Leaving Examination
The percentage of students passing the primary school leaving examination (PSLE) has fluctuated
significantly in recent years, as illustrated by Figure 10. The sharp drop in 2007 was reportedly due
to syllabus changes and tighter invigilation. The 2008 data suggests that 2005 and 2006 figures
were probably anomalous. Reaching the MKUKUTA target will require a significant effort.
28 According to BEST 2008, a little under 35,000 children in primary schools had some kind of disability, about
0.4% of the school population (MoEVT, 2008a). This figure has now dropped to 27,500. The 2008 Disability
Survey found 4 out of 10 children of official primary age attending school, but less than 2% of these children
are attending a special school. In addition, 16% of disabled children reported that they were refused entry into
educational systems (Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW), 2009).
29 Absolute numbers of truants has declined but the percentage of pupils dropping out for reason of truancy has
increased.
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