Provision of pre-primary education as a basic right in Tanzania: Reflections from policy documents

Abstract

This study sought to assess provision of pre-primary education in Tanzania as a basic right through analyses of relevant policy documents. Documents which were published over the past decade were considered, including educational policies, action plans, national papers, the Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania documents, strategy documents, documents representing the views of the people, and the Tanzania Development Vision 2025. Critical discourse analysis guided the process of analysis. The results suggest that pre-primary education has hardly been provided as a basic right. Issues of quality, equity and hearing children's voices have rarely been considered, particularly as a result of the problems associated with the policy, such as the lack of an implementation plan. Further, it has been mentioned less frequently in some of the key government documents. This brings the current policy closer to politics than policies. The article recommends that there needs to be a consideration of quality, equity and hearing children's voices at the policy level to realise provision of pre-primary education as a basic right.