Education Policy Implementation: A Mechanism for Enhancing Primary Education Development in Zanzibar
Education is one of the fundamental
rights of individuals; therefore, the government of a country needs to develop
and strengthen educational policy and quality as well as to ensure that
everyone has equal access to basic education. The improvement of access and
quality of education in the world is becoming as an essential factor in
development, whereas the basic education (primary school), is acknowledged as a
foundation of the higher educational development for every country. To fulfill
this goal, governments introduce several policies and procedures; however, it
requires some reforms and participation from the politician, policymakers, and
other stakeholders to re-examine educational policy so that it can lead to
multiplication and betterment of the reforms. Educational reforms actually
focus on accountability. A positive educational development and reform is very
challenging and needs more effort and strategy on how to use and utilize the
resources effectively as such it can achieve the educational goals. Inevitably,
to formulate the education policy faces many policy challenges, including inter
alia, significant budgetary constraints, intermingling of other public
institutions on its implementation, limited capacity to provide excellent
quality services.
It does not matter how hard it is; the
government has to overcome these challenges in order to achieve its educational
and development goals, like overcrowding in classes which affects the delivery
of quality education in the classroom. The low rate of teacher inspection
(almost once in three years) hence has led some teachers to be less careful in
their work. Also, there is the shortage of mathematics and science teachers
because many of them have an arts background. Furthermore, there is the
scarcity of learning materials for children with special needs. The existence
of double shift (morning and afternoon) results in having less teaching and
learning time. School-based inspections by the head teachers are not done as
directed by the Ministry. Owing to the absence of residential quarters for
teachers in many schools, teachers have to travel a long distance to school. As
a consequence, they tend to reach late and be tired and this reduces
teacher-pupils contact hours. The present study assesses the implementation of
the education policy for primary education in Zanzibar so as to enhance the
quality of education as well as to ensure that every child has access to
education. Therefore, this study aimed to improve access to education at the
primary level by assessing gender, age, and geographical distributions to the
enrolment for primary education in Zanzibar from 2012-2016. The results of the
study will contribute to the resolutions of the current challenges of policy as
well as provide some mechanisms for a better implementation of the policy for
primary education in Zanzibar.
Ministry of Education and vocational
Training (MoEVT) in Zanzibar has the statutory power to make sure that
education policy is implemented and accomplished in accordance with the
timeframe. In order to implement Zanzibar Education Policy, the MoEVT provided
Zanzibar Education Development Programme (ZEDP) in 2008 with some specific goals
and objectives and drew up plans of action for the 8-year period of policy. The
implementation of the education policy showed a positive change and success
from 2012-2016. It was noticed that the number of enrolment increased rapidly;
however, the enrolment rates were different by genders and from one district to
another. Although the dropout rates were still acceptable for Zanzibar, the
MoEVT needs pay more intention to some districts where rates of enrolment were
still low. The MoEVT also has concentrated on the capacity development of its
staff so as to ensure the quality of education for all. In short, the MoEVT has
done well to improve access to basic education at primary education.
The study suggested that the MoEVT
implement the education policy by paying more attention to gender equity and
geographical distributions of the access to basic education of children. The
MoEVT also needs to improve the awareness of the communities so as to bring
their pupils to enroll at the eligible age. Also, MoEVT should continue to
collaborate with other educational institutions and development partners to
provide refresher courses to strengthen the capacity of the teachers so that
the quality of education can also be ensured. The refresher courses are
paramount especially in this time of globalization where different teaching
methods are changing time to time. Moreover, inspection is needed from time to
time to ensure the quality of education to enhance primary schooling as the
foundation of higher education.
Article
by Amran Said Suleiman*, Yen Yat, Issah Iddrisu from University of Science and
Technology of China, China
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| Image by Sergi Albir,from flickr-cc |
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