Final Report

Project Title: Provision of alternative learning opportunities for adolescent girls forced out

of schools due to teenage pregnancies

Target Country or Region: United Republic of Tanzania

Budget code: 552URT1002

Funding sources: Japanese Funds – in- Trust

Total Budget approved: US $ 400,653

Reporting Period: March 2012 – September 2015

Executing Agency: UNESCO Dar es Salaam Office

Implementing partners: Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training;

Institute of Adult Education (IAE); Local government authorities (Shinyanga, Msalala and

Kahama District Councils)

Project starting date: March 2012

Project completion date: September 2015

Responsible Sector: Education

Name of Person completing Report: Jennifer Alima Kotta

ii

Table of content

Table of content ....................................................................................................................... ii

List of Figures ..........................................................................................................................iii

I. Summary and Background .......................................................................................... 1

II. Description of project implementation ....................................................................... 2

II.a Activities undertaken: ................................................................................................................ 2

II.b Output generated: ..................................................................................................................... 3

II.c Organisation of the training programme: .................................................................................. 3

II.d Difficulties and Problems encountered and measures taken, any changes in implementation4

III. Progress towards results ............................................................................................. 5

III.a Learning Needs Assessment ..................................................................................................... 5

III.b Curriculum Development .......................................................................................................... 6

III.c Curriculum Materials Development .......................................................................................... 6

III.d Establishment of Learning Centres ........................................................................................... 6

IV. Sustainability exist/transition strategy ....................................................................... 7

V. Visibility ........................................................................................................................ 9

VI. Challenges and lessons learnt. ..................................................................................11

VI.a Attainment of overall goal: .........................................................................................11

VII. Annexes (publications, reports and other project outputs, when applicable) ........12

VII.a Final Evaluation Report .......................................................................................................... 12

VII.b Beneficiaries Stories .............................................................................................................. 12

VII.c Good practices ....................................................................................................................... 12

VII.d UNESCO Dar Es Salaam Newsletter: April - June 2015 .......................................................... 12

VII.e UNESCO Dar Es Salaam Newsletter: July - September 2015 ................................................. 12

iii

List of Figures

Figure 1: Young mothers in Shinyanga and Msalala during practicing tailoring and Tie&dye ..... 3

Figure 2: Young mothers practicing soap making ....................................................................... 4

Figure 3: Exhibition at Segegese made for the graduation ceremony: in the picture Norika

Tanaka (representative from the Embassy of Japan in Tanzania). ............................................. 7

Figure 4: HE the Ambassador of Japan delivering a speech during the dissemination of the

project evaluation report. Also in the picture are, center the Regional Administrative Secretary of

Shinyanga Region and the Head of Office and UNESCO Representative in Tanzania .............10

Figure 5: Participants of the dissemination meeting of the project evaluation report ..................10

1

I. Summary and Background

This project was initiated to support adolescent girls and young mothers who dropped out of

school due to pregnancies and early marriages in two districts in the United Republic of Tanzania:

Shinyanga rural and Kahama districts in Shinyanga region. With the new administrative revision,

the district of Kahama has been divided into 3 district councils, Ushetu, Msalala and Kahama town

councils. Hence, in Kahama the project was implemented in Kahama town and Msalala District

councils. The problem of adolescent girls dropping out due to pregnancy and early marriage is

rampant. In fact, even if Tanzania has been cited for its remarkable achievements in expanding

enrolment and gender parity at the primary education level, this rapid expansion of primary

education to achieve Millennium Development Goal 3 has come at the expense of quality of

education as well as equality and equity throughout the education system. The most vulnerable

population group in terms of accessing quality educational opportunities is girls in the lowest

economic quintile living mainly in rural areas.

Gender parity at secondary level is still to be attained with only 41% girls enrolling in lower

secondary against 50% boys (URT EFA Profile 2014, UNESCO Dakar). The situation gets worse

as we look at higher levels of education with having double more adolescent boys than girls (6

against 3%); in addition, a considerable number of young girls drop out of lower secondary every

year, almost 37,000 according to the Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania (BEST 2013). 5,000

quit because of pregnancy, while the rest drop out by truancy. Regular mandatory pregnancy test

leads to expulsion of these girls at the early stages of pregnancy and readmission is hardly ever

considered especially in public schools. Reasons most often cited are cultural values and

practices such as early marriages and heavy domestic workload as well as distance to schools

and poor academic performance. Those girls have their educational dreams curtailed. So the

issue at stake is not only the dropping out but of girls being forced out of the formal education

system.

Despite the growing number of adolescent pregnancies, the government has not established any

policies or alternative learning opportunities for such girls. Guidelines for the reintegration of these

girls in schools have been developed but their application is waiting the formal endorsement by

the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training (MoESTVT). Girls

affected by this policy do not have a chance to reintegrate into the formal education system or

provided with an opportunity to access alternative learning opportunities to acquire academic or

other skills that would help them access the world of work or become self-employed.

2

This project was developed with a view of supporting the Government of Tanzania’s Economic

Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, popularly known as MKUKUTA. It fell within the

context of Cluster II of the strategy which is to improve ‘quality of life and social well-being’. The

project was also expected to contribute to EFA goals 2 and 5 which call for “eliminating gender

disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in

education by 2015”. It was also intended to contribute to the realization of MDG 3 which promoted

gender equality and women empowerment.

II. Description of project implementation

The following are activities that were planned in the project:

1.a.1. Undertake a situation analysis of adolescent girls forced out of school due to pregnancy in

the selected region including a mapping of the target group and local associations for potential

partnership.

1.a.2. Develop and pilot self-learning modules for generic lower secondary level Kiswahili, English

and Math.

1.a.3. Develop and pilot comprehensive empowerment toolkit including appropriate life and

income generating skills targeting adolescent pregnant girls or young mothers.

1.a.4 Design and pilot alternative learning programmes targeting adolescent girls.

1.b.1. Identification and training of facilitators from selected local associations/ organizations to

support, monitor and assess the self-learning.

1.b.2. Develop and pilot training manual and facilitators guide for self-learning modules and

empowerment toolkit.

1.b.3. Conduct training for facilitators.

2.a.1. Conduct regular monitoring and project evaluation

2.b.1. Identify and document achievement and good practices for dissemination

II.a Activities undertaken:

A situation analysis of adolescent girls forced out of school due to pregnancy in the selected

region including a mapping of the target group and local associations for potential partnership

was undertaken at the inception phase of the project. 100 young mothers dropped out of school

due to pregnancies and early marriages were identified through a baseline survey undertaken in

Shinyanga and Kahama districts.

The Institute of Adult Education (IAE); was subcontracted to carry out Activities 1.a.1, to 1.a.4 and

1.b.1 to 1. b.3.

3

II.b Output generated:

(i) Learning needs of the target group identified through an assessment. After conclusion, the

needs assessment report was disseminated to education district stakeholders in Shinyanga,

Msalala and Kahama town councils for inputs and subsequently validated.

(ii) Parallel curriculum for adolescent mothers developed. Two components, Vocational and

generic skills were identified for developing the parallel curriculum.

- Vocational skills areas: batik making (Tie &Dye), tailoring and needlework, cookery,

poultry and beekeeping, soap making and vegetable crops production.

- Generic skills, entrepreneurship, cross cutting issues (HIV/AIDS, Gender, and

Environment), Ethics and adolescent sexual and reproductive health.

Some vocational components utilised the already developed Intensive Post Primary Education

(IPPE) curriculum. These components were: Tailoring, Cookery, Poultry, beekeeping and

production of vegetable crops. The language of instruction was Kiswahili except for

communication skills that was in English for which facilitators guided learners to develop required

competencies.

Figure 1: Young mothers in Shinyanga and Msalala practicing tailoring and Tie & dye

II.c Organisation of the training programme:

The training programme was organised into two stages:

Stage 1: foundation skills development course comprising: communication skills, Kiswahili, basic

knowledge in generic skills and simple mathematics for a duration of 6 weeks.

4

Stage 2: comprised of generic skills and pre-vocational training for a duration of 9 months. Pre-

vocational skills focused on Batik making (Tie & Dye), Tailoring and Needlework, Cookery, Poultry

and Beekeeping, Soap making, and Vegetable crops production trades. Whereas Generic skills

included the following subjects: Entrepreneurship, Cross cutting issues (HIV/AIDS, Gender, and

Environment), Ethics, and Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH).

43 key actors1 , 20 from Kahama and 23 from Shinyanga participated in the orientation session

for the selection of facilitators and selection of learning centres that took place end of November

2013. The training of facilitators and school inspectors (including planning) was conducted in

January 2014 followed by the training of 220 identified young mothers that started in February

2014

Figure 2: Young mothers practicing soap making

II.d Difficulties and Problems encountered and measures taken, any changes in

implementation

The implementation of the project did not follow the schedule planned initially. Some reasons

behind the delay included: (i) lengthy negotiation period between UNESCO and the implementing

1 The key actors were invited to ensure their commitment to support the project implementation and their ownership. Those key actors were selected because of their responsibilities at the district and ward levels. From the district level participants included: District Education Officers both for primary and secondary schools; from the adult education department in Shinyanga: the Resident Tutor, District Vocational Officer and the District Vocational Officer. From the ward level, the key actors invited were: Ward Councillors, Ward Executive Secretaries, Ward Education Officers and Ward Community Development Officers.

5

partners (Institute of Adult Education and the Districts authorities in Shinyanga and Kahama); (ii)

the adaptation of curriculum took longer than expected; (iii) The development of training modules

on batik (Tie & Dye) and soap making was hampered by the lack of professional experts capable

of developing learning materials. The majority of practitioners in that field are mostly engaged in

practical aspects of skills development. Hence, it was decided to use locally available practitioners

and develop instruction guides to be used by learners of these two components.

III. Progress towards results

III.a Learning Needs Assessment

The data was collected from ten selected wards of Shinyanga and Kahama districts.

The survey focused on the following issues:

Factors leading to the school girls’ pregnancies

Experiences found among teenage pregnant girls

Experiences found among teenage mothers

Preventive mechanisms against school girls’ pregnancies

Ideal competencies for out of school teenage mothers to help them enhance their

education and improve their financial situation.

The information was collected from three categories of respondents that included:

Teen mothers

Parents of Teen mothers

Leaders (institutions and community)

The data was analyzed and the report disseminated to different stakeholders.

Communities in these districts tend to hide cases of early pregnancies in fear of prosecution by

the law of the culprit being condemned for life imprisonment or not less than ten years in prison.

To some, this law is regarded as an opportunity for them to get wealth from the responsible men

with agreement that they will keep secret while obliging their daughters not to mention the

perpetrator. As a result, during the period of data collection it was not easy to get the young

mothers because they felt that they would be required to testify on who impregnated them.

In fact, early pregnancy is a result of cultural norms, traditions and beliefs that encourage pre-

marital sexual relations as well as early marriage.

6

III.b Curriculum Development

As a result of the learning needs assessment, the IAE developed a parallel curriculum to the

Intensive Post Primary Education (IPPE) model and a syllabus based on the concepts/philosophy

of competence development, open learning and integration of learning components. The

curriculum was composed of Pre-vocational skills 2 and Generic skills learning areas. Pre-

vocational skills focused on Batik making (Tie & Dye), Tailoring and Needlework, Cookery, Poultry

and Beekeeping, Soap making, and Vegetable crops production trades. Whereas Generic skills

included the following subjects: Entrepreneurship, Cross cutting issues (HIV/AIDS, Gender, and

Environment), Ethics, and Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH).

III.c Curriculum Materials Development

The curriculum is modularized, hence learning modules were developed and some were adopted

from the already existing one from the IPPE programme. The newly developed modules included

Four foundation course modules: Kutumia matendo ya Hisabati (Applying Mathematical

Operations); Kutumia mbinu za mawasiliano katika Lugha (Using Kiswahili Communication

Skills); Masuala ya msingi kuhusu stadi nyenzo (Introduction to Generic Skills); and

Communicating effectively in English. One module for generic skills was also developed namely:

Kubaini mambo muhimu kuhusu ujana, uzazi na malezi (Recognizing Issues on Adolescent,

Sexual, Reproductive Health and Parenting).

The modules adopted from IPPE model included Tailoring and needle work, Cookery, Poultry,

Beekeeping and Production of vegetable crops. Other modules were Entrepreneurship,

HIV/AIDS, Gender, Health, Environment and Ethics. Batik making (Tie & Dye) and soap making

trades were taught using locally developed guides by local skilled practitioners.

III.d Establishment of Learning Centres

The exercise started by awareness raising of key actors (see footnote 2) From selected wards in

the two districts with the aim of reaching common understanding of the programme for effective

participation. These actors on their turn went back to sensitize their communities on the alternative

learning opportunities for out of school teenage mothers and girls who were expelled from school

2 Pre-vocational skills consisting of provision of initial vocational skills development.

7

because of pregnancies. They were also oriented on how to mobilize resources and how to

supervise the learning centres for effective implementation. As a result, they identified learning

centres, facilitators and learners for each centre.

A 14 days training of centre facilitators and school inspectors was conducted aiming at building

their capacities on the implementation of the programme. This workshop brought together 36 (20

Male & 16 Female) participants from five wards of Shinyanga rural and five wards of Kahama

districts. These included 10 facilitators, 10 local artisans and entrepreneurs, 10 ward education

coordinators, and 6 school inspectors and district officials.

Figure 3: Exhibition at Segegese made for the graduation ceremony: in the picture Norika Tanaka (representative from the Embassy of Japan in Tanzania).

IV. Sustainability exist/transition strategy

As a transition measure to ensure sustainability and support, the following steps were taken:

(i) Introduction of the project from its commencement to the relevant regional, district and

ward authorities to ensure their support during the implementation and to create

ownership.

8

(ii) Consultation and association of community members during the collection of data of

the needs assessment, as in addition to teenage pregnancies, most of the reasons

behind girls drop out, are associated with socio-cultural norms and practices that

encourage early marriage.

(iii) The main implementing partner was the Institute of Adult Education (IAE), one of the

key technical institutions under the Ministry of Education that has the mandate and

responsibility of promoting access, equity and quality education to all Tanzanians,

especially those who cannot be reached by the formal system. Hence, UNESCO

subcontracted the IAE to design and implement the training programme using local

facilitators.

(iv) The facilitators who were supporting the programme were paid a token amount as

encouragement for them to out carry the tasks assigned to them and also to create a

pool of facilitators with relevant skills and techniques that can be used for expanding

the programme if the District authorities decide so.

(v) The authorities from Shinyanga, Kahama Town and Msalala district councils have

been involved from the onset of the implementation of the project so that they can

appropriate the whole process. The district authorities provided logistic support to the

Institute of Adult Education to ensure smooth implementation of the training

programme.

To ensure sustainability and ownership, the 149 young mothers who graduated from the

programme established 10 income generating groups registered at the district level to qualify for

loans for business creation. An Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Centre has been established

in Shinyanga by the IAE, a resident tutor has been appointed and stationed in Shinyanga. The

Districts have indicated that they will continue to support the programme using the district own

funds. This commitment was proclaimed by the Regional Administrative Secretary, publicly during

the presentation of the Evaluation Report where he informed that the Regional Budget of the

Shinyanga region has captured already the continuation of this programme. In addition, the IAE

has indicated to have initiated an ODL training in January 2016 targeting the beneficiaries of the

project, which will allow them in 2 years to sit for a qualifying test that will allow them to take the

Form 4 exam and if they succeed re-enter in the formal system if they desire to do so. Most of the

young mothers have registered to attend this ODL training. This is the highest form of

sustainability that could be wished for.

9

V. Visibility

All learning materials adapted and developed have the JFIT logo.

The graduation ceremony conducted in two wards, Segese and Iselamagazi, presented an

important opportunity for visibility of the programme. A representative of the Embassy of Japan in

Tanzania, Dr. Noriko Tanaka attended the graduation, witnessing at first hand the results of the

project. Other key authorities were also invited: The Director of Adult and Non Formal Education

from the Ministry of Education, the Director of the Institute of Adult Education and several high

level authorities from regional, district and ward levels. Parents, community members in the

neighborhood and the media participated in the ceremony. Coverage included radio programmes,

television, newspapers and blogs. Click here for details on the UNESCO Dar es Salaam website.

The dissemination of the evaluation report constituted also another occasion to enhance visibility

of the donor. The Ambassador of Japan in the United Republic of Tanzania, the Head of Office

and UNESCO Representative in Tanzania, the Commissioner for Education of the Ministry of

Education, Science and Vocational Training and the Regional Administrative Secretary from

Shinyanga were the key dignitaries that attended the ceremony. Other high officials from

Shinyanga, Kahama, Government and Non-Governmental organization as well as UN agencies

participated in the event. Two project beneficiaries have also attended and given space to share

their stories and in particular how the project has changed their lives. Members from different

media: television, newspapers, radio and Blog provided a good coverage. More details of the

project including the evaluation report, beneficiaries’ stories and good practises can be found on

the UNESCO Dar es Salaam website by following the link below:

Provision of alternative learning opportunities for adolescent girls forced out of schools due to

teenage pregnancies

Three articles on the project were published in three different newsletters of UNESCO Office Dar

es Salaam. The cover picture of this report was used for several days in the UNESCO general

website opening page

10

Figure 4: HE the Ambassador of Japan delivering a speech during the dissemination of the project evaluation report. Also in the picture are, center the Regional Administrative Secretary of Shinyanga Region and the Head of Office and UNESCO Representative in Tanzania

Figure 5: Participants of the dissemination meeting of the project evaluation report

11

VI. Challenges and lessons learnt.

VI.a Attainment of overall goal:

The overall goal of the project was to provide alternative learning opportunities for empowerment

of pregnant adolescent girls and young teenage mothers identified in the selected wards. Initially,

the intervention targeted 1003 teenage mothers traced at the beginning of the implementation of

the project. When the implementation of the project started, 220 teen mothers were registered to

follow the training programme and 149 succeeded in completing the training programme and

decided to continue with the open and distance learning mode to allow them complete the cycle

of lower secondary school level, a pre-requisite to move to advanced secondary school. This

accounts for a project achieving of nearly 150%.

VI.b Attainment of the expected results:

Results expected from the project included heightened awareness among policy makers and the

general public on the need to enable adolescent girls, who are forced out of schools to continue

their education and have access to learning opportunities. The project has achieved the expected

results and has developed a model that was adopted by the Regional Administration who

committed budget to address the needs of this group of girls4.

The project also supported the MoESTVT to finalise the guidelines to allow re-entry of adolescent

girls who dropped out of school to reintegrate the formal stream or follow other non-formal

education programmes.

The project was also expected to develop and pilot learning modules and toolkits to empower

adolescent girls in not only allowing them to learn but also acquire income generating and life

skills to cope with their situation as young mothers and care givers. All those modules were

developed and using the training materials, 149 girls graduated from the programme and

3 The difference between the number of teen mothers initially traced was due to the fact that during the baseline survey,

community members were hiding information on teenage pregnancies in fear of prosecution because such act is punishable by law (ref. special law on sexual offences (SOSPA) which require culprits to be taken to court if found guilty, the punishment is life

imprisonment or not less than ten years in prison. 4 The commitment was publically announced by the Shinyanga Regional Administrative Secretary during the dissemination of the evaluation report.

12

established 10 income generating groups registered at the district level. They can now access

small loans offered by the district to support women associations.

VI.c. Ownership of key stakeholders:

The Institute of Adult Education started an open and Distance Learning Programme in January

2016 to allow the young mothers to continue their education. This is an acceleration programme

of two years, after which the students sit for a qualifying test that will allow them to take the final

exam of Ordinary Secondary school level (Form IV), a pre-requisite to access advance secondary

school level.

Key regional and district authorities appreciated the outcome of the project and committed to

continue to support the programme by ensuring smooth registration of the 10 income generation

groups and support the young mothers to take part in the open and distance education

programme.

The Commonwealth of Learning has indicated interest to support the IAE to expand the same

kind of intervention to other regions.

VII. Annexes (publications, reports and other project outputs, when applicable)

VII.a Final Evaluation Report

VII.b Beneficiaries Stories

VII.c Good practices

VII.d UNESCO Dar Es Salaam Newsletter: April - June 2015

VII.e UNESCO Dar Es Salaam Newsletter: July - September 2015