Teachers Forum
February, 2001

Voices from Tanzania:
Teachers in Focus

Introduction

COBET is an initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Tanzania and supported by UNICEF, aiming to give out-of-school children, girls in particular, the opportunity to acquire basic education. The fact that about 3 million school-aged children are not in school has proved a big enough challenge to prompt the Government to find solutions, especially since these children are denied access to basic education and preparedness for life.

COBET’s principal characteristics is one of complementing the formal system, whose inadequacies have led to the backlog of children who should be in school, but are at home or working.

Communities (potential learners, parents, leaders and residing members) are involved in choosing the curriculum content, time tabling, selection of facilitators and identification of location for the learning premises. In sum, they play a crucial role in the planning, implementing and management of education in their local area. To date, the outcome from the initial selected programme areas (Kisarawe and Masasi districts) has been an evolution leading to shorter school hours than in the formal system, no use of corporal punishment, no direct education-related costs and the use of participatory and child-friendly learning methods. The COBET curricula consists of five subjects: Communication Skills (Kiswahili and English), Mathematics, General Knowledge, Vocational Skills and Personality development (including Life Skills). COBET classes are formed using two age cohorts: cohort one (for children aged 8-13 years old) and cohort two (14 to 18 years). The intended three year cycle will ultimately allow the cohort I children to be mainstreamed into the formal primary school system. The cohort II children will be able to continue with vocational training or qualify for secondary education.

In COBET, the emphasis is on the participatory methodology and active interaction between learners and their facilitators.

There are two types of facilitators; those who have undergone formal professional development at teachers training institutions and the group of volunteers from the communities with a basic secondary education background. In each COBET Centre, there are three facilitators, one of which is a trained teacher.

We feel that the revolution for learning and learning well for life will grow from the way in which learning is shared and experienced. The COBET experience should help in this movement to liberate the children of Tanzania by reinforcing enrolment and opportunity for all school aged children to acquire a basic primary education.

Delaide Daniel  ·  Delfina Lusuva  ·  Rashid Chua Chua  ·  Sedet Bulaya

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