The Development And Problem Of Tanzania’s Secondary Education Since Its Independence(1961-2010)

In the 1960s, since the independence of African countries, they had been facing the problem of surviving and developing. Education,as the main tool for the establishment and development of a country,had been seen as sacred and solemn by African people. Tanzania is an important country in Africa, has suffered colonial exploitation and domination by Portugal, Germany and the United Kingdom for more than 400 years. After tireless struggle,the people of Tanzania achieved national independence at last.The mainland Tanganyika and Zanzibar,Following their respective independence in 1961 and 1963, merged in April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania.The appearance of secondary education of Tanzania is late.Before the British colonial rule,Tanzania had local Indigenous education and the following Islamic and Christian education.But,there was no the separated secondary education at that time.During the British colonial time,in the 1930s,two or three secondary schools appeared.The complete 12 years of schooling eventually formed until 1946,with the increase of enrollment.Especially female education had preliminary development.All these development laid a solid foundation to the post-independent Tanzania’s secondary education.At the beginning of independence,the president Nyerere pay great attention to secondary education.a Three-year Development Plan (1961-1964) was formulated in which secondary education was received the highest priority to meet the higher-level workforce requirements.However,because of the financial problem and the urgent requirement of manpower resource,the government decide to implement the development of adult education.Secondary education was neglected during the whole Ujamaa socialist period.Even though,secondary education attained some achievement under the guidance of the Nyerere education philosophy. It was advocated education for self-reliance,and education was connected closely to agriculture,so as to develop students’ awareness of voluntary labor.democratic development,and service for society and other socialist attitude.Besides,during that time,Tanzania cultivated many teachers,and the content of education turned more localization.Following the defeat of the Ujamaa socialist movement and Mwinyi’s ruling,since the 80s,Tanzania has introduced market economy,education development is more liberalization and diversification.In recent years,the development of secondary education has some new attempt,such as market-oriented secondary education become more diversification and professional;the practice of secondary school enrollment quota system;the implementation of secondary school fees cost-sharing policy; and more and more community schools established for the sake of universal secondary education.In addition,the Secondary Education Development Plan(SEDP) was enacted in 2004,inspected all the disadvantages of secondary education,so as to make relevant policy to instruct the secondary education development in the 21st century.But the first stage of the development plan in 2004-2009 didn’t finish the anticipated target.Since 2010,the second phase of SEDP is still in the implementation,we will wait and see.Even so, The condition of secondary education in Tanzania is still grim,which is an obstacle to achieve modernization,because it has restricted the social and economic development.Secondary education is the nexus of the entire education system, an necessary stage to get into higher education, which is an inevitable process to improve the overall quality of education,is also the must way to modernize Tanzania.