Transforming Education for Girls in Tanzania

The Transforming Education for Girls in Nigeria and Tanzania (TEGINT) project is a special education initiative to transform the education of girls in Northern Tanzania and Northern Nigeria, enabling them to enrol and succeed in school by addressing key challenges and obstacles that hinder their participation in education and increase their vulnerability to gender violence and HIV/AIDS. TEGINT ran between 2007 and 2012 as a partnership between ActionAid, Maarifa ni Ufunguo in Tanzania and Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP) in Nigeria, funded by Comic Relief and the Tubney Charitable Trust in the United Kingdom. As well as interventions to enhance girls' education, the project included a substantial research component involving researchers from Nigeria, Tanzania and the Institute of Education, London.  This report on the Endline Research Study for the project analyses data collected in Tanzania in May to June 2012.This endline study was designed to examine changes in girls' schooling and empowerment since the baseline research was conducted and assess the relationship of the changes with key project inputs. The key areas of investigation are:

• Gender equality in schooling: whether the gender profiles in enrolment, attendance and progression in the project schools have changed, and whether changes are similar or different to district averages;
• Girls' empowerment: whether aspects of girls' empowerment have changed and whether there is a relationship between these aspects (obstacles and solutions to schooling, knowledge of HIV and confidence about gender inequalities and violence) and major project inputs (girls' clubs, teacher training and supporting school management) and related activities;
• Teaching and teachers: girls' experiences of participatory teaching methods and how this relates to teacher conditions - class size, qualifications and training - and levels of girls' attainment and empowerment;
• School management: how the gender management profile has changed since the baseline and how this is related to the gender profile, girls' empowerment, teacher qualifications, teacher engagement and project interventions;
• School funding: Whether levies charged have changed and how these relate to activities of school management committees and girls' attendance and attainment;
• Community mobilisation: views of community members on gender equality in school and girls' vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and gender violence and how these are related to training. (pp. 4-5).

Thirty schools (23 primary schools and seven secondary schools) were selected for the study using stratified random sampling. Of these 18 are rural schools and 12 located in urban areas. At least three primary schools and one secondary school were sampled in each of six project districts. Data was collected using survey instruments to six categories of respondents and collection of school and district administrative data.A pilot study and training workshop were carried out to test the validity of the research instruments, approve logistical arrangements and check ethical issues. Each research team comprised at least two females to interview girls, girls' club facilitators and female community members.The surveys attained a 98% rate of return (618 / 632). Surveys were completed with 295 girls; 149 teachers; 29 girls' club facilitators; 30 head teachers; 24 School Management Committee Chairpersons; and 91 community members. Girls surveyed ranged between 11 to 22 years of age; the majority (68%) were 12 to 14 years of age and 30% were over 15. Over 92% of all respondents were surveyed in total privacy.The data analysis included composite indices that bring together information from diverse data in the surveys. Each of these indicators is at school level, so each school has a ‘score'. They describe:• the strength of the TEGINT intervention (Intervention index)• how well girls do relative to boys in school (Gender profile)• how active the school is on girls' education (Gender Management profile)• how empowered the girls are (Girls' Empowerment index)• how well qualified the teachers are (Teacher Qualification profile)• how engaged the teachers are (Teacher Engagement index). (p. 6)

• Girls have high aspirations for their education, despite concerns with poverty, gender-based violence, the consequences of early pregnancy and marriage, and lack of school facilities. Girls' views about overcoming obstacles tend to focus on short-term and less sustainable interventions, like sponsorship to pay school fees.
• Girls identify poverty, lack of school facilities, and distance to school as major obstacles to schooling in places where they can easily see other girls who do not experience such obstacles. They tend to be silent on these obstacles in places where poverty levels are higher and there are greater distances to walk to school. In addition, there is considerable silence on gender-based violence.
• Where teachers have higher levels of qualifications, girls are more able to articulate a wider range of demands for their schooling. Where there are larger numbers of women teachers there is more gender parity in attendance, progression and attainment. Teacher training colleges have given more attention to HIV/AIDS than gender.
• Government funding for schooling is insufficient. Many schools where gender parity in attendance, progression and attainment is not a problem are supplementing government funding with very high levies from parents and communities.
• Better levels of gender parity in attendance, progression and attainment are found in schools where SMCs have more women members and are highly proactive. however, SMCs have limited capacity to respond to gender-based violence. (p. 4)