U.K. assistance to support education in Tanzania failed to improve children’s basic literacy and mathematics skills, according to a new report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI). It said the U.K.’s assistance has helped to fund expansion of the education system in the country through boosting enrollment of pupils and helping the closure of the gender gap in the schools. However, ICAI criticized the Department for International Development (DfiD) for its “lack of attention” to know whether children were actually learning.
Tanzania, along with Ethiopia and Rwanda, benefited from the U.K. program worth more than £1 billion. Per the report, “The quality of education being provided to most children in these countries is so low that it seriously detracts from the development impact of DfiD’s educational assistance.” In addition, ICAI failed to find evidence that the DfiD was considering “basic preconditions for learning,” such as whether students and teachers actually attend class after the first day.