FINANCING FOR EQUITY
1. Overall Education Financing Mechanisms
2. Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Schools
3. Education Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Students and Families
4. Social Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Students and their Families
Education is compulsory and free for 11 years including one year of pre-primary, 6 years of primary, and 4 years of secondary education.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) and the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG) manage the education budget. The former manages around 28% and the latter around 70%. PORALG allocates funds to Regional and Local Government Authorities (LGA) who are responsible for spending most of the budget.
There are three main types of financial transfers to LGAs: recurrent block grants (94% of it is allocated to salaries), basket fund grants and capital development grants. The formula guiding recurrent expenditure and the recurrent block grant are based on the number of children enrolled in schools in each LGA, while the development grant targets the poor, the rural population, children under five years old, and accessibility to services. This formula also takes into account performance, level of poverty, and classroom shortages.
Capitation grants go directly from the central government to schools and its allocation is based on the number of students. The capitation formula is under review to accommodate equity factors such as number of children with special educational needs in a school. Schools receive USD 4.33 (TZS 10,000) for each primary school student and USD10.82 (TZS 25,000) for each secondary school student.
In 2017, the education sector received an allocation of USD 2.04 billion (TZH 4.71 trillion) or 15% of the total budget and 3.9% of the GDP. In 2018, the government spent 20.56% of its budget and 3.7% of its GDP on education. There are 26.9 million2 school age children in Tanzania.
School food programs for boarding schools and children with special needs3
Children living in boarding schools (who tend to be poor) and special needs children receive meals. In 2016, the program cost around USD 3.029 million (TZS 70 billion) or 0.07% of GDP. In the same year, the program reached 176,000 children or 0.65% of the school age population: 127,000 boarding school children and 49,000 special needs children.
Transportation for special needs children4
Tanzania also supports special needs children with transportation related benefits. The Government allocated about TZS 68 billion to this in 2016 (0.07% of GDP) and almost 49,000 special needs children or 0.18% of the school age population benefited from the program. Per child expenditure adds up to USD 643 (TZS 1.4 million) per year.
Supported by the Ministry of Home Affairs, refugee children benefit from dedicated French-medium schools within the designated refugee areas, in three refugee camps. There are approximately 150,000 school-aged refugee children living in Kigoma Region of Tanzania, equivalent to 0.55% of the school age population. In 2018, the government provided USD 1,44 million (TZS 3.34 billion5) or 7.71%6 of the Ministry of Home Affairs’ budget.
Higher Education Student Loans
Loans aretargeted to students in need (orphans, students with disabilities, low-income households, or marginalized community), prioritizing those pursuing a degree in one of the national priority areas. Loans average USD 1731 (TZS 4 million) and do not exceeding USD 5400 per year. In 2017, this program was the largest expenditure of the Ministry of Education: USD 185.1 million (TZS 427.8 billion) or 47% of all development expenditure that year, benefiting 122,6237 students or 0.45% of the school age population.
Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN)
Created in 2013 and implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund, PSSN interventions can provide households with a maximum annual benefit of approximately US$370. 28. Beneficiary households receive a basic unconditional transfer of USD6 per month. Households with children receive a fixed child benefit of about USD2.5 per month, in addition to a variable transfer related to school, health services, and nutritional services access of up to USD14.5. The education transfers adjust according to schooling level with USD 0.87 (TZS 2,000) for primary, USD 1.73 (TZS 4,000) for lower secondary, and USD 2.60 (TZS 6,000) for upper secondary.
In 2016, PSSN expenditures was USD 118.5 million (TZS 258.0 billion) or 0.25% of GDP. In the same year, PSSN’s cash transfer reached 5.3 million people in 1.1 million households or 9.4% of the population.
The Most Vulnerable Children (MVC) program.
Part of the social assistance program, MVC aims to assist children who are abandoned, neglected, abused, orphaned, affected by the AIDS crisis, as well as all children who are at risk of not receiving basic social services including education. The program provides basic services including education. In 2016, it spent about USD 64,000 (TZS 139 million) or 0.0% of the social protection spending and helped 2.3 million children or 8.54% of the school age population.
