Shift from Fee-Free to Fee-Based Public Primary Schools in Tanzania

TLDR

• Public system divided This model may be effective for cost recovery at schools, but it poses a serious policy dilemma.
• Over the past few years, a slow but deeply polarising change has been taking shape in Tanzania’s public primary schools.
• The national policy banner celebrating fee-free basic education, Elimu Bila Ada, is displayed on school walls, yet an increasing number of public primary schools have taken another route: English-medium instruction.
• READ MORE: Stakeholders Rattled As More Govt Primary Schools Transform Into English Mediums There is no single national policy or regulatory framework for public English-medium primary schools, so individual schools.
• The public education system is now beginning to institutionalise differences between fee-free and fee-paid public primary schools, with children being segregated according to their household’s ability to pay.