Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA has received a financial grant of 195.92bn/- from the government of Sweden for the implementation of the Education Programme for Result Phase II (EPforR II).
Financing agreements, which were signed on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam, will support and promote long-term changes in the national education sector and allow children to stay in school and learn.
The EPforR II project, which will focus on increasing the quality of basic education and run from 2021 to 2026, according to the agreement signed.
Ambassador of Sweden to Tanzania, Mr Andres Sjoberg said education is one of the key objectives in Swedish Development Cooperation.
“Without a doubt, an inclusive and equitable national education system is a cornerstone and bridge that enables people living in poverty to improve their living situations and make sustainable life choices,” he said.
The envoy further said Tanzania has made significant progress in expanding access to basic education and reducing gender disparities, since the country approved the fee-free education policy.
Mr Sjoberg equally noted that the EPforR II programme’s goal is to support the government’s efforts to develop the national system, so that resources such as teachers and learning materials can be directed, where they are most needed.
While the first phase of Ep- forR focused on females’ education, he said they missed many boys who dropped out of school early, thus phase two will help the government reach gender parity and a more inclusive education system, that takes onboard also children with disabilities and others disadvantaged by geographical locations.
EPforR is a multi-donor project, according to Mr Emanuel Tutuba, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
It is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), World Bank (WB), Swedish Interna- tional Development Agency (SIDA), Korean government through Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Global Partnership for Education (GPE), using a ‘programming for results’ modality to bring about meaningful change in the basic education sector in Tanza- nia.
“We are grateful for the assistance we have gotten today (Tuesday); it is a significant achievement since it helps to address the problem of high illiteracy, allowing a huge number of people to participate in socio-economic development.
In Phase I of the project, Sweden committed 207.7bn/-,” he said.
Mr Tutuba further said some notable EP4R performance from 2014/15 – 2020/2021 includes the construction of 10,409 classrooms, 20,507 toilets, 646 dormitories, 91 teachers’ houses, 37 administrative buildings, 49 li- braries, 29 laboratories, construction of three fences and drilling water wells in 16 schools.
Others are the construction of 155 School Quality Assurance Offices and equipping them to improve the working environ- ment and bringing closer customer service in primary and secondary schools; construction of 44 new schools to reduce student overcrowding and rehabilitation of 86 old government Secondary schools.
Rehabilitation of 31 School Quality Assurance Offices; and procurement of 184 Motor vehicles for all District councils, 93 Motor vehicles for District Quality Assurance offices and 26 Motor vehicles for regional education officials, 5 Motor vehicles for the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) and 39 Motor vehicles for teachers’ colleges.
On 26 August 2021 Tanzania signed a grant agreement worth 117.55bn/- billion for Pro- ductive Social Safety Net phase II (PSSN II).
