By Imani Lwinga

IN a move that would ensure gender balance participation in social economic development, the Tanzania Education Authority [TEA] has set up an Equity Fund.

The fund aims at boosting the enrolment, retention and academic performance of female students in natural science subjects and related fields at different levels of education. Currently, female students are at a serious disadvantage in those subjects.

“Education and economic development are two inseparable phenomena in the socio-economic development in any country,” says TEA director general Mrs. Mercy Sila. TEA principally approved the establishment of the Equity Fund on September 11, 2003.

This is a clear response to a research conducted in Tanzania that reveal an imbalance between females and males in social economical development as a result of the human resource preparation process that favours males over females.

Statistics by the Ministry of Science, Technology and High Learning Education indicates that out of 23348 total students enrolled in both public and private universities in the year 2002/03, only 7704 of them were females. Females’ enrolment is smaller than males, where by males exceed females by almost 50 percent.

In technical colleges, the trend is also poor. According to the available data, in 2001/02 out of 1372 students enrolled in various engineering courses, only 60 were males. Again in 2002/03 out of 1257 students enrolled for various engineering disciplines, only 48 were females.

Data from the Ministry Education shows that in 2002 out of 4056 ‘A’ level students’ enrolment in public secondary schools science combination, females were 1236. In 2003 out of 4829 students in the same subjects, only 1450 were female.

In 2002, according to data from the National Examination Council of Tanzania [NECTA], a total of students registered for National Examination in science subjects were 139626 out of whom, 58179 were females. Similar trend has been shown for 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

From 1999 to 2003, the total number of students’ enrolments in Form I-IV was 1,344,968 in both public and private secondary schools. Out of that the number of female students was 632,329.

It has been realized however, that the imbalance begins at secondary school level and worsens at Form Three when specialization into the natural sciences and other subjects takes place. The registrations for Form Four science examination has revealed that a small number of female students, compared to that of males, join science subjects.

The existing efforts of combating the problem of gender in the education system have proved successful at primary level. TEA is well placed and therefore required to make deliberate efforts to eliminate gender disparity in advanced and tertiary education.

On technical colleges and universities, TEA will financially support institutions that offer pre-entry science courses for female students, and all initiatives made for establishing pre-entry science courses at institutions that have not yet established such courses. The intervention will go hand in hand with the support of user friendly instructional materials in these institutions.

Nevertheless, in teachers colleges, female teachers’ trainees opting for Physics/Mathematics combinations in Colleges offering science courses so as to encourage more female Form VI leavers opt for science studies. Secondary school female students would be sensitized to specialize in science subjects

Generally, the rationally for the Equity Enrolment Fund is based on the Tanzania Development Vision 2025, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper [PRSP], the national Sub-Master Plans for Higher and Technical Education, Science and Technology as well as the Education Fund Act No.8 of 2001, which established TEA.

Both Vision 2025 and the PRSP recognize the critical importance of developing high quality human resources in all key areas of national development and especially in those related to the promotion of science and technology.

“Within this framework, the principle of ensuring that the marginalized segments of society are empowered to participate effectively in development is clearly underscored,” Mrs. Sila said.

The national sub-master plans for Higher and Technical Education, Science and Technology dwells on the promotion of student enrolment in natural science and related fields. Redressing the social-economic constraints that limit female students’ access into advanced secondary and tertiary education is one of its central roles.

In a course of developing this document, extensive studies were made of the existing data and various support programmes including the female scholarship scheme at the University of Dar es Salaam, funded by the Carnegie Foundation and the David Anderson Africa Trust [DAAT] programme at the Open University of Tanzania.

Other projects dealing with female education empowerment include TUSEME by the Forum for African Women Educationalist, Tanzania Branch [FAWE-TZ], and Science Education for Secondary School [SESS] by the Ministry of Education and Culture.