The role of money in Tanzanian education and its effects on boys and girls in one Southern community

• In Event: Challenges and opportunities for education in Africa

Abstract

Objectives or purposes of the paper
Although support for girls’ schooling is reflected in Tanzania’s national policy and rhetoric, some regions lag behind in getting girls to school (UIS, 2014). Within Tanzania, the southern district of Lindi has the largest disparity between girls’ and boys’ secondary school enrollment (DHS, 2010). This research focuses on Milola, one specific community in Lindi with low secondary school participation for girls. The Form 4 class currently is only comprised of young men.
One candidate explanation for low enrollment is a lack of value placed on schooling. To investigate the value Milola residents place on girls’ schooling, I explored the perceived connection between “schooling” and “a good life.” Through three weeks of qualitative research in Milola, the role of money emerged as a prominent factor that mediates the connection to “schooling” and “a good life” in a number of ways. This paper explores the role of money in, at some times, connecting “schooling” and “a good life,” and at other times attenuating this connection.

Analytic perspective
Girls’ schooling in developing countries is often exalted as a positive national investment. The reality that this “investment” depends on local agents is highlighted by a number of anthropologists of education (Kendall, 2007; Vavrus, 2002, 2005). My analytical approach is informed by an anthropological view of education that foregrounds the positions of local agents, seeks to understand processes of meaning-making around education, and embraces the belief that “if we want to more fully understand the dynamics of educational inequality, we must examine more comprehensively the relevance of factors outside the domain of education that bear on schooling opportunities” (Vavrus, 2003, p. 197). With this project, I seek to understand these factors through exploring local notions of a “good life.”
In contrast to the internationalized discourse touting the economic value of girls’ education, I explore the local, situated knowledges about girls and schooling in one Tanzanian village (Haraway, 2001). Like Haraway, I embrace the view that knowledge is partial and locally situated; my research strives to consider the different knowledges around education that are present and contested within one community.

Modes of inquiry
Data collection for this project was conducted in June of 2014. I spent three weeks living in Milola along with my translator, Atupelye Dugange. Along with my Atupelye, I conducted interviews or focus groups with more than 100 residents of Milola. With youth, I used drawing methods and pictures to prompt conversation. With adults, I conducted verbal interviews.
I also conducted participation-observation in the community and observation in primary school classes. Early on in my fieldwork, I took transect walks in the village with secondary school girls to learn about water sources, farming sites, and other important community locations.

Data sources or evidence
Interview transcripts are the primary data source for this project, though quantitative data were collected from the Ward Education Office. The interviews and focus groups involved the following participants:
• 23 teachers
• 20 primary school students
• 12 secondary school students
• 10 out-of-school youth
• 13 mothers
• 9 fathers
• 3 police officers
• 15 additional community members (local leaders, elders)

Preliminary results
Though data analysis is still underway, preliminary analysis reveals that money mediates the connection between schooling and a good life in important and nuanced ways. However, because of the role of money, many youth expressed that if they could get money through other ways, they would. When I asked if it was possible to have a good life without education, many said yes; when I asked if it was possible to have a good life without money, everyone said no. Some data reveal that girls felt education is more necessary to a good life for girls, because girls cannot get money through local employment as easily as boys due to the gendered nature of the local economy. Data also suggest that, when money is an input to education, the economic value of schooling becomes more significant in decision-making.

Significance to the field
Over the past several decades, the financial complexion of Tanzanian schools has shifted towards austere public sectors and increased private spending. One effect of this has been the introduction of school fees and school contributions. School’s financial requirements present challenges in poor areas like Milola. The majority of research has considered how money functions as an input of education, not necessarily a perceived outcome, and this research adds to the field by considering this angle.

Author

• Alyssa Morley, Michigan State University