Influence of External Forces on Educational Policy Formulation and Implementation in Tanzania

Challenges and the Way Forward

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Pedagogy - School System, Educational and School Politics, grade: Tertiary level , University of Dodoma (University of Dodoma, College of Education), language: English, abstract: This paper examines the influence external forces on educational policies formulation and reforms in Tanzania. These forces include the international agendas, globalization, ideology adoption and international community donors. Data were collected through documentary reviews. The study found that most of education policies and reforms in Tanzania are external rather than internal influence. It was further noted that even the implementation of these policies and reforms depend entirely on donors both financially and human resources. However, it is recognized that most of support from these forces are oriented towards the quantitative improvement rather than quality enhancement. This state of affair was found to affect the quality of education delivery negatively. Challenges facing these policies and reforms were also addressed in this paper. The paper concludes that, despite the quantitative policy achievements like the student enrolment expansion, it is important for the responsible to improve the primary and secondary schools quality of education as well as to address the issues of corruption for the education allocated fund in particular.