The Motivations, Constraints and and Behavior of Tanzania’s Frontline Providers Education Providers

Jacobus Cilliers and I co-authored a research note that examines the activities, attitudes and behaviors of Ward Education Officers in Tanzania. WEOs are responsible for working with Head Teachers and other school level officials to improve education quality.

The main findings are below:

  1. Ward Education Officers (WEO) are responsible for a wide range of activities when they visit schools, but there is high variation across districts in what they do. This finding suggests that government and other education stakeholders can do more to standardize WEOs’ activities and target ones that will improve school quality.
  2. WEOs often lack the resources they need to visit schools. Although almost all WEOs in Tanzania have received a motorbike to visit schools, the majority still do not have sufficient budget for fuel and maintenance.
  3. WEOs report high job satisfaction overall. However, they are less satisfied with their opportunities for promotion and salaries.
  4. WEOs note that their performance is rarely rewarded, even though they believe that their manager knows if they are performing well.
  5. Although WEOs report having a high level of authority and autonomy, their job is more difficult due to the fact that different people expect different things from them.

More information available at the link above.

This Week in International Education

Below are links to a few education-related pieces I read this week:

  1. Low Performance and High Satisfaction: The Information Paradox of Bad Schools This blog by Susannah Hares of Ark Education highlights  findings from the Varkey Foundation’s Parent Survey. The survey reveals that parents in countries that perform poorly in education (such as India, Kenya, and South Africa) are more satisfied with their children’s education than parents in high-performing countries such as Korea. The piece explores several potential explanations for this phenomenon and examines whether providing parents with performance information is an effective strategy for improving education outcomes.
  2. Facing Forward: Schooling for Learning in Africa – The World Bank’s new report assesses the current state of education in sub-Saharan Africa and suggests ways to improve both access and quality.
  3.  Are Our Children Learning? This Twaweza report summarizes the results of basic learning assessments conducted in three East African countries: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania from 2011-2015. My main takeaway from the report is that all three countries have seen little to no improvement in basic learning outcomes over the last five years.