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Access to Quality Education for Children Living in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods in Tanzania, Education inputs in Tanzania’s urban informal settlements

Tanzania, 2022
Human Development (HD)
Moses Ngware, Wilberforce Meena
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Identification

IDNO
DDI-TZA-APHRC-UEG-2023-v01
Title
Access to Quality Education for Children Living in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods in Tanzania, Education inputs in Tanzania’s urban informal settlements
Subtitle
Education inputs in Tanzania’s urban informal settlements
Country
Name Country code
Tanzania TZA
Abstract
Urban education is emerging as a significant topic of discussion in Tanzania and other Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, particularly focusing on the challenges faced by the population residing in impoverished urban areas. Learners from low-income households in urban settings encounter more difficulties in their
educational journey compared to their more privileged counterparts. Tanzania, like many SSA nations, is undergoing substantial urbanization, marked by a notable rise in rural-to-urban migration, projected to reach approximately 55% of the country’s population by 2050.
Understanding the current state of urban education is crucial for developing plans to address the escalating demands of urban education in the future. The study aimed to address these issues through the following research questions:
1. What are the schooling patterns among children living in urban poor households in Tanzania – including those with special needs?
2. How do urban poor communities perceive and understand education as a right in the context of urbanization in Tanzania? and,
3. What available education opportunities exist for children with special needs and living in poor urban households?
In collaboration with HakiElimu and technical support from the National Bureau of Statistics, APHRC conducted a cross-sectional concurrent mixedmethods study. Quantitative data were gathered from 1,200 randomly selected low-income households in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, along with input from 98
educational institutional heads from schools enrolling learners from the sampled households. Qualitative data were obtained through focus group discussions with caregivers/parents, in-depth interviews, and key informant interviews involving opinion leaders and policymakers.
The study received ethical and administrative approvals from relevant authorities. Data analysis focused on 2,150 children aged 5-17, reflecting the basic education schooling age in Tanzania. A wealth score, derived from household belongings, was categorized into three equal tertiles for analysis purposes. The key results
highlights have been presented below and thereafter a set of key study recommendations.

Schooling patterns:
The findings indicate that 98.1% of children have attended school, with a slightly higher percentage among girls. Among learners with special needs (2.3% of the total), only 10% have received schooling,
revealing an access gap for these vulnerable children. Six out of ten (60%) schools have provisions for learners with special needs, while those without reported inadequate facilities. In the academic year 2022,
the majority of learners in pre-primary, primary, and ordinary level secondary education were enrolled in government schools (79.9%, 87.3%, and 90.6%, respectively).
This underscores significant government control over enrollment spaces for learners from low-income urban households. The primary factor influencing school choice was the cost, suggesting the success of
Tanzania’s free primary and secondary education initiatives. However, among the surveyed schools, the pupil-teacher ratio exceeded the government’s recommended number (40) across all levels. Additionally,
the average class size surpassed 100 learners per class in primary school signaling quality issues.

Perceptions of Right to Education
The right to education is categorized into three sub-themes: policy and strategies, law enforcement, and the school feeding program.
1. Policy and Strategies: Stakeholders acknowledged the state’s obligation to protect and promote the RTE. Examples cited included the Tanzania Education and Training Policy of 2014 (2023 edition) which cites the successes in the provision of the fee-free primary and secondary education, illustrating the government’s efforts to ensure universal access to education.
2. Law Enforcement: Local government authorities (LGAs) actively encourage parents to send their children to school. Those who fail to comply are presented to legal enforcement agencies, emphasizing the commitment to ensuring children’s attendance.
However, implementation varies from one LGA to the other.
3. School Feeding Program (SFP): The government’s dedication to protecting the RTE is evident through the implementation of school feeding programs (SFPs).

Version

Version Date
2023-11-24
Version Notes
N/A

Scope

Keywords
Keyword
Urban Education
Poverty
Enrolment
Special Needs
Policy

Coverage

Geographic Coverage
Urban informal settlements of Tanzania, specifically in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma
Unit of Analysis
Households: The study analyzes household characteristics, such as size, head of household information, and wealth tertiles.
Individuals (Children): The study focuses on children aged 3-19, specifically looking at their schooling patterns, participation, and characteristics.
Schools: The study includes a school survey, analyzing school facilities, teacher qualifications, pupil-teacher ratios, and other school-level factors.
Community: The study explores the perceptions and roles of community leaders and the community in relation to the right to education.
Universe
The survey covered households with school going children aged 3 to 19 years in selceted urban informal settlements in Dar esr Salaam and Dodoma

Producers and sponsors

Authoring entity/Primary investigators
Agency Name Affiliation
Moses Ngware African Population and Health Research Center
Wilberforce Meena Haki Elimu Tanzania
Producers
Name Affiliation Role
Nyambura Thiong'o African Population and Health Research Co-investigator
Maurice Mutisya African Population and Health Research Co-investigator
Rose Kalage Haki Elimu Tanzania Co-investigator
John Kalage Haki Elimu Tanzania Co-investigator
Francis Kiroro African Population and Health Research Co-investigator
Funding Agency/Sponsor
Name Abbreviation Role
Wellsprings Philanthropic Fund WPF Funder
Other Identifications/Acknowledgments
Name Affiliation Role
Ministry of Education, Sports and Technology Collaborator
National Bureau of Statistics Collaborator
Bonface Butichi Ingumba African Population and Health Research Center Data Governance Officer

Sampling

Sampling Procedure
A sample of 1,200 households and 2,593 children aged 3 to 19 years was randomly selected through proportional allocation by region, ward, street, household head sex and age category.

The initial stage involved the listing of eligible households in the selected informal settlements. The initial criteria used was to ensure the household had at least one child who was aged 3-19 years. The listing exercise adopted a systematic approach: Starting from the furthest point of the enumeration areas, research assistants identified and listed the first eligible households. They would then skip to the fifth household. If the fifth household was not eligible, they would move to the next until they identified an eligible one. As a result, 3,567 households with 7,742 children aged 3-19 years were reached.


Using the data obtained from listing as a sampling frame, a sample of 1,200 households and 2,593 children aged 3 to 19 years was randomly selected through proportional allocation by region, ward, street, household head sex and age category. The household sample size was designed to allow estimation of key schooling indicators. The following indicators were considered in estimating the minimum sample size: enrollment, out of school, and attendance and primary and secondary school intake rates.

We utilised primary school net enrolment rate of 81.33%2 (World Bank 2018) for it gives the highest sample size.Besides, we made the following assumptions i) a design effect of 1.5 ii) average number of people aged between 3 and 19 years per household as two; iii) a 5% level of significance, which corresponds to 1.96 critical value for the standard normal distribution corresponding to a Type I error); and iv) a 5% margin of error respectively. The minimum estimated sample size was 2,389 children aged 3-19 years from 1,195 households after adjusting for a 90% response rate. The sample stratified proportionately between the two study sides based on their population and thereafter, randomly sampled households to participate in the study based on the listing.
Deviations from the Sample Design
The minimum estimated sample size was 2,389 children aged 3-19 years from 1,195 households after adjusting for a 90% response rate.
Response Rate
90%
Weighting
N/A

Data Collection

Dates of Data Collection (YYYY/MM/DD)
Start date End date
2022-10-03 2022-10-08
Mode of data collection
Face-to-face [f2f]
Supervision
Interviewing was conducted by a team of 45 interviewer with street and cell leaders accompanied the interviewers to the households.
Type of Research Instrument
Household Questionnaire included household membership and their characteristics , social-economic characteristics, including food security, household shocks, household poverty well-being, and household schedule.

The individual schooling history questionnaire included detailed schooling information about individuals aged between 3 and 19 years, which consist of schooling information (enrolment, type of school enrolled, participation in preschool among others) for the year (2022), and 5 years retrospectively based on the age of the child.

The parental or guardian involment questionnaire helped sought information on parental involvement in their children's schooling including homework support, details of last schooling year(s), parental perception of student schooling experience, feeding and costs of schooling.

The institutional questionnaire contains information on institutional heads, staff and fees.

Data Processing

Cleaning Operations
Data quality assessments continued during the data collection period by assessing for consistency of the responses as well as comparing data collected by field workers against spot check data collected by the senior research team and field supervisors.

Upon data collection completion, data were rigorously checked for consistency and outliers.

Data cleaning was carried out using Stata v.17.0.
Other Processing
N/A

Data Appraisal

Estimates of Sampling Error
The following assumptions were made i) a design effect of 1.5 ii) average number of people aged between 3 and 19 years per household as two; iii) a 5% level of significance, which corresponds to 1.96 critical value for the standard normal distribution corresponding to a Type I error); and iv) a 5% margin of error respectively.

Therefore, the minimum estimated sample size was 2,389 children aged 3-19 years from 1,195 households after adjusting for a 90% response rate.

Data access

Contact
Name Email URI
African Population and Health Research Center datarequests@aphrc.org www.aphrc.org
Conditions
APHRC data access condition
All non-APHRC staff seeking to use data generated at the Center must obtain written approval to use the data from the Director of Research. This form is developed to assess applications for data use and facilitate responsible sharing of data with external partners/ collaborators/researchers. By entering into this agreement, the undersigned agrees to use these data only for the purpose for which they were obtained and to abide by the conditions outlined below:

1.Data Ownership:
The data remain the property of APHRC; any unauthorized reproduction and sharing of the data is strictly prohibited. The user will, therefore, not release nor permit others to use or release the data to any other person without the written authorization from the Center.

2.Purpose:
The provided data must be used for the purpose specified in the Data Request Form; any other use not specified in the form must receive additional or separate authorization.

3.Respondent Identifiers:
The Center is committed to protecting the identity of the respondents who provide information in its research. All analytical data sets (both qualitative and quantitative) released by the Data Unit MUST are stripped of respondent identifiers to protect the identity of the respondents. By accepting to use APHRC data, the user is pledging that he/she will not, under any circumstance, regenerate the identifiers or permit others to use the data to learn the identity of any individual, household or community included in any data set.

4.Confidentiality pledge:
The user will not use nor permit others to use the data to report any information in the data sets that could identify, directly or by inference, individuals or households.

5.Reporting of errors or inconsistencies:
The user will promptly notify the Head of the Statistics and Survey Unit any errors discovered in the data as soon as the errors are discovered.

6.Publications resulting from APHRC data:
The Center requires external collaborators to work with APHRC staff on all publications resulting from its data. In order to facilitate this, lead authors should send a detailed concept note of the paper (including the background, rationale, data, analytical methods, and preliminary findings) to the Principle Investigator (or Theme Leader) for the project (with a copy to the Director of Research), who will circulate the abstract to concerned researchers for possible expression of interest in participating in the publication as co-authors. Any exception to the involvement of APHRC staff should be approved by the Director of Research, APHRC.

7.Security:
The user will take responsibility for the security of the data by ensuring that the data are used and stored in a secure environment where access is password protected. This will ensure that non-authorized people should not have access to the data.

8.Loss of privilege to use data:
In the event that APHRC determines that the data user is in violation of the conditions for using the data, or if the user wishes to cancel this agreement, the user will destroy the data files provided to him/her. APHRC retains the right to revoke this agreement or informs publishers to withhold publication of any work based wholly or in part on its data if the conditions for using the data are violated.

9.Acknowledgement:
Any work/reports from this data must acknowledge APHRC as the source of these data. For example, the suggested acknowledgement for NUHDSS data is: "This research uses livelihoods data collected under the longitudinal Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS) since 2006. The NUHDSS is carried out by the African Population and Health Research Center in two slums settlements (Korogocho and Viwandani) in Nairobi City."Additionally all funders, the study communities that provided the data, and staff who collected and analyzed or processed the data should be acknowledged.

10.Deposit of Reports/Papers:
The user should submit electronic and paper copies of all publications generated using APHRC data to the Policy Engagement and Communications Department, with copies to the Director of Research.

11.Change of contact details:
The user will promptly inform the Director of Research of any change in your personal details as contained on this data request form.
Citation requirement
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download

Metadata production

Document ID
DDI-TZA-APHRC-UEG-2023-v01
Producers
Name Abbreviation Role
African Population and Health Research Center APHRC Project Implementation
HakiElimu Project Implementation
Date of Production
2023-10-15
Document version
Version 1.0(October,2023)