Data Must Speak: United Republic of Tanzania
Positive deviance reports and project briefs
Highlights
Evidence-informed decision making is crucial to improve the quality and relevance of basic education in United Republic of Tanzania. Both the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) in Mainland Tanzania and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) in Zanzibar are interested in enhancing data usage and access to develop, implement, and monitor evidence-based policies, plans and strategies for primary education.
By merging and analyzing existing administrative datasets in both Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the Data Must Speak (DMS) research helps to identify important associations between school inputs and school performance that can inform public policies and investments in the education sector. The DMS research leverages this administrative data to identify positive deviant schools – or those schools outperforming other schools operating in the same contexts and with equivalent resources. It then identifies the practices and behaviours that may be contributing to positive deviant schools’ success and explores how to scale these to more schools in the country.
Data Must Speak is a global initiative launched in 2014 to address the evidence gaps and mitigate the learning crisis using existing data. The DMS Positive Deviance research is co-created and co-implemented with Ministries of Education and key partners. It employs mixed methods and innovative approaches, including positive deviance, behavioural sciences, implementation research and scaling science to generate knowledge and practical lessons. The research focused on understanding ‘what works’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ to scale grassroots solutions for national policymakers and the international education community.
All DMS Positive Deviance research outputs related to the United Republic of Tanzania is presented here:
DMS Stage 1: Understanding what resources and contextual factors are associated with good school performance
- Stage 1 Report: Unpacking Factors Influencing School Performance in Mainland Tanzania (English)
Stage 1 Report: Unpacking Factors Influencing School Performance in Zanzibar (English)
DMS Stage 3: Discovering locally led behaviours and practices to improve quality education
- Stage 3 Report: Research on the practices and behaviors of positive deviant schools in Mainland Tanzania (English)
- Stage 3 Executive Summary for Mainland Tanzania (English)
- Stage 3 Report: Schools Inspiring Change: Research on the practices and behaviours of positive deviant schools in Zanzibar (English)
Stage 3 Executive Summary of the DMS research in Zanzibar
Citation: UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training Zanzibar and UNICEF Tanzania, Data Must Speak – Schools Inspiring Change: Research on the practices and behaviours of positive deviant schools in Zanzibar. UNICEF Innocenti, Florence, November, 2024.
