GENDER AND EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES IN TANZANIA: “DO WE BRIDGE THE GAP OF QUALITY?”

Tanzania in response to the World Declaration on Education for All (EFA) – Universal Primary Education by 2000, Millennium Development Goals, and the Dakar EFA Goals embarked on different programmes and initiatives to address the issue of education as the major strategy to development challenges. The adoption of Education and Training Policy(1995) and subsequently the launching of Education Sector Development Programme (1997) were fundamental in reforming education in the country. Then, in the 2000s, two programmes [Primary Education Development Programme and Secondary Education DevelopmentProgramme] were launched to deal with issues of education in primary and secondary schools. By 2010, Tanzania has attained gender parity in primary school enrolment and near parity in lower secondary school enrolment. However, it remained difficult to resolve genderinequalities through education as many gender disparities persevere in higher levels of education and science fields; education for vulnerable and disadvantaged population groups is not well addressed; and, the quality of education has deteriorated overtime. It is high time then, for Tanzania to address gender equality through education and improve the quality of education by investing in Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED), educating the vulnerable and disadvantaged population groups, developing learning curiosity amongwomen and girls, and improving quality of teachers.