The right to primary education: the Tanzanian dimension and international law

This dissertation is an attempt to investigate the Right to Primary Education under Tanzania’s Constitutional and statutory law as an interpretation of the international law of Education. It attempts to examine the study of the State, if any, to provide Primary Education as a “Human Right” emanating from the international law. This task is to be approached in two ways: (1) by examining the nature of Tanzania’s binding obligation to provide primary education as a “Human right” in terms of the international law; (ii) by attempting to interpret the international law standard in terms of Tanzania’s social values establishing the right to primary education, including its level of implementation. No presumption is made that primary education can only be provided as a “Human Right”. Again no presumption is made that the mere provision of such and education by government gives primary education the automatic status of a “Human right”. However, the public regulation of education increasingly as an element of international human rights law is clear proof of growing faith in the important subject of human rights as a whole. Invariably Human Rights are directed towards the protection of human dignity and the worth of the human being. The right to primary education also claims the same goal. Generally education does two things: (a) civilising and humanising the individual and (b) providing the vital basis for development. In essence, the public regulation of Education seeks to achieve (I) development of basic knowledge including the art of numeracy and literacy which any productive member of society must have; and (ii) to guarantee that children will not become a liability to society. Automatically this double aspect creates a shared interest about education as between the individual and the State. It is these particular characteristics which combine to give to primary education the claim of a “human right”. The overall contention of this Dissertation is that, with the legal adoption of the international standard of the international law of Education only recently in 1978 (NATIONAL EDUCATION ACT N0.25 OF 1978) in mainland Tanzania; and 1983 for Zanzibar (EDUCATION ACT, NO.6 OF 1982, repealing the colonial Education Decree No.9 of 1959), Tanzania has not been able so far to give full implementation to the Right to Education. There are at least two important aspects if this condition as follows: (i) although the international law of Education prescribes UNIVERSAL, FREE AND COMPULSORY Education, the Tanzania Education Acts differ in their provisions relating to this standard. (ii) Enforcement of the Right of Education has not been fully consistent with the international law standard. The arrangement of chapters is in the following order: In CHAPTER ONE: an attempt is made to lay out the basis of the Right to education in terms of the conceptual nature of Human Rights under the international law. The intention is to try to find a foothold for the legal character of Education in Tanzania as a Human Right, and the standard for its implementation. In CHAPTER TWO: An attempt is made to examine the biding nature of the international educational law upon Tanzania. In CHAPTER THREE It is analyse the implied content of the Right to Education in terms of the domestic law. The intention is to try to discover the social need for Education as a “Human Right” in Tanzania. In CHAPTER FOUR: The legal structure and organisation of primary Education in Tanzania is examined. In CHAPTER FIVE: A specific area of application of the Right to Education, namely the implementation of Universal Primary Education (UPE), as a special program is investigated. The intention is to try to evaluate UPE in terms of the binding principles of the international law of education. In the final and CHAPTER SIX: Some RECOMMENDATIONS are made on the basis of major problems encountered in the text of the research. The suggested recommendations, the Primary school system in Tanzania should be re-organised in two ways: (a) to de-nationalise part of the system in order to allow Private schools. This should assist the government in terms of educational cost; (b) to diversify the Primary school curriculum in order to be able to include POLYTECHNIC skills, and which should enrich the content of Primary education for purposes of diversified economic production on a scientifically sound basis