Tanzanian children's perceptions of education and their role in society : views of the children 2007

This report is the result of a survey of 500 children, aged from 7 to 14 years, from ten regions in Mainland Tanzania. This study, the first of its kind in Tanzania, gives children's opinions on issues relating to education : school services such as health care, water supply and food, textbooks, teachers, discipline, extra charges, and their desired improvements to education.
In the second component of the survey researchers sought children's opinions on their role in society, particularly their social and economic contributions to their families and communities, their desire for and access to information, the formal and informal ways they are listened to, and their aspirations for the future.
Specific insights about schooling appearing from this study include : a) children understand the importance of the environment, both within the narrow confines of “the teaching/learning environment”, and within the broader issues of the environment around the school, tree planting and so on; b) they understand the importance of good health, nutrition and clean water and yet in practice schools do minimum amounts to provide these amenities; c) the overall pictures is of schooling being quite a limited closed exercise with teachers explaining a fixed body of knowledge to a largely passive body of children. Communication between the school and parents in the upbringing of the children is weak. Above and beyond these technical points appears a human level which challenging the adults, whether as parents or professionals : children want to be listened to and taken notice of.