We’re excited to announce that Teach For Tanzania has joined Teach For All as the global network’s 51st partner. An independent nonprofit organization in partnership with the country’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST), Teach For Tanzania recruits outstanding Tanzanian university graduates to teach in rural public primary schools across Tanzania. In line with MEST priorities and Teach For Tanzania’s awareness of the importance of Science, Technology, Education, and Math (STEM) subjects in today’s world, 60% of its fellows will teach STEM subjects.

Today in Tanzania, where children are born and their family’s socio-economic circumstances  often predict the trajectories of their education and economic future. Children aged 7-13 from rural areas, where 70% of Tanzania’s population resides, are nearly 15% behind their more urban peers in numeracy and literacy skills. Additionally, more than two million Tanzanian children are out of school and children from poor families are three times less likely to attend school compared to children from the wealthiest families. 

Teach For Tanzania’s CEO and Founder Sophia Assenga is committed to addressing the education crisis of millions of children in her country. Sophia was the first and only child in her family of seven siblings to attend secondary school and then graduate from university. This, along with her experience as a lower secondary school teacher, helped fuel Sophia’s drive to work to improve education in Tanzania.

Working together with Serengeti and Bunda district authorities, Teach For Tanzania has identified 12 schools where the organization plans to place its first cohort of fellows in January 2020. Students in these schools have struggled to successfully transition from mother tongue instruction to Kiswahili and English, and have also performed poorly in numeracy and literacy skills at alarming rates. Teach For Tanzania fellows will be working extra hours with primary grades 4 and 5 pupils to ensure that at least 80% of the pupils are transitioning successfully with equal levels of numeracy and literacy as their counterparts in higher performing schools. They will also work with existing teachers towards the goal that in four years, the reading levels of students in these schools will be at par with national averages. 

Teach For All’s global network looks forward to learning from Teach For Tanzania’s staff, fellows, and future alumni, as well as from the communities in which they work. 

Learn more about Teach For All's newest partner and follow Teach For Tanzania on Twitter and Facebook.