As Tanzania approaches the 29 October 2025 general election, education is once again being positioned at the heart of political promises.
With the upcoming election, the Tanzanian government is in a position to mobilise more resources for increased access to education, and it can do this by advocating for increased structural measures for more inclusive and equitable access to education.
Despite the introduction of fee-free education and increased investment in expanding the education sector in the country, the issue of out-of-school children in Tanzania remains a reality for many children and youth.
Today, more than 3.2 million children aged seven to 17 are out of school, of which 1.2 million have never attended classes. This indicates an even deeper issue that goes beyond policy within Tanzania as concerns access to education. It requires more concerted initiatives and targeted policies.
Out of school
The term “out of school” does not only extend to those who have not attended school, but it also includes learners who have dropped out of school before completing their compulsory basic education, and remain out of the education system.
In Tanzania, various barriers to education access remain, shaping the experiences of many children across the country and limiting the country’s development prospects.
According to regional data, poverty and economic hardships remain among the biggest contributors to the dropout rate in both primary and secondary school. This is despite the introduction of fee-free education by the government in 2016.
In such cases, children are introduced to household cost-sharing responsibilities, leading to limited prioritisation of education pursuits and support within families. This often leads to low academic performance and a high dropout rate.
On a gendered analysis, girls are subjected to child marriage due to financial need, leading to the prioritisation of the bride price as an immediate economic priority over the pursuit of education, which would take longer to manifest as a form of material means for the family.
The budgets
To the government’s credit, investment in infrastructure has yielded results. Since 2020, student numbers have grown from 14.9 million to 16.1 million in 2024, a clear sign of expanding access.
This has been coupled with the expansion of classrooms, which increased from 128,425 in 2020 to 155,330 in 2024 for primary schools, and in secondary education from 46,928 in 2020 to 81,052 in 2024.
But without structural reforms and social support that is targeted toward education access, these gains risk being outpaced by demographic pressures and economic inequality, reflected in the growing population.
Electoral campaigns
In its manifesto, the current ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), pledges to continue implementing fee-free education and expand infrastructure investment. However, the manifesto stops short of offering a clear, multi-dimensional roadmap. It fails to confront the entrenched realities, poverty, gender inequality, long travel distances and harmful cultural practices that continue to exclude Tanzania’s most vulnerable children.
As voters head to the polls in 2025, education must be more than a campaign footnote. It must be a national priority backed by inclusive policies, cross-sector collaboration and community-driven solutions.
That means addressing poverty at its root, investing in gender-sensitive policies, expanding school feeding and transport programmes, and challenging the social norms that hold learners back, especially girls.
Going forward
Infrastructure matters, but so do the structural measures that are required beyond the brick and mortar. For Tanzania to truly achieve inclusive and equitable education, future governments must look beyond classrooms and towards the complex realities that millions of learners face every day.
The need to address inequality, poverty and sociocultural barriers that still limit access to education remains paramount going into the election period and beyond, to ensure transformative and lasting frameworks. DM