Objective and scope of the survey

Tanzania’s expansion in primary and secondary education over the past years has been impressive by all standards. However, the question is whether the expansion in education infrastructure and enrolment has been matched with a commensurate increase in resource allocation, that the resources have reached out to service delivery providers, and in particular schools, and to what extent it has been implemented without undue sacrifices on quality of education as measured by students’ performance. To provide some answers to the above, the Government of Tanzania has commissioned a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) for Primary and Secondary Education in mainland Tanzania.

This report presents the findings of the survey. The survey covers resource allocation and use for government primary and secondary schools in mainland Tanzania. Through the survey a comprehensive set of data was collected from a sample of regions, councils and schools that gives a fair representation of all regions, councils and schools of mainland Tanzania. The survey data were combined with national records and many of the analyses performed are based on data for all regions, councils and schools. It covers all resource flows and use including central level grants, regional and council level contributions as well as contributions from parents and others. It covers data and analysis of both wage and non-wage spending. Accordingly, it is the most comprehensive education sector tracking survey in Tanzania commissioned to date.

The survey was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) jointly with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA), the Prime Minister’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG), the Ministry of Community Development, Gender & Children (MoCDGC), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and Development Partners (DP), all represented in a subcommittee chaired by MoEVT overseeing and guiding the implementation of the survey.

The survey was designed to address several issues related to primary and secondary education in mainland Tanzania (ref. terms of reference in Annex I), among others:

• low of public funds; Do funds allocated through state and Local Government Authority (LGA) budgets reach the schools as intended, if not is this due to delays, leakages and/or other factors?
• Equity in distribution; Is there a correlation between allocation/releases and other factors such as school level, district and regional characteristics?
• Private/community/parent contributions; What is the level of community/parent contributions to primary and secondary schools?
• Quality of education; What is the level of dropouts, completion, exam passed and other tests as compared to resource intensity and other characteristics of the district/school?

This report presents findings in relation to all the above issues. The survey has focused on resource flows and use at the national, regional, district and school levels; how the amount of resources allocated is reaching the schools and what they have been used for. It has also included school level contributions from other sources including contributions from parents.

The survey covered allocations and expenditure for primary and secondary education for the fiscal year 2007/2008 (FY2008). To enable analysis of links to education sector performance data, data at national, district and school levels were collected for the school year 2008 and used as an approximation to fiscal year performance.