Promoting children’s learning through quality pre-primary education in Tanzania

This study investigated the quality of pre-primary education and the extent to which it promotes children’s learning in Tanzania. Four research questions that guided the study focused on children’s competence promoted by pre-primary education; the extent to which pre-primary schoolchildren were taught in a developmentally appropriate manner; the contribution of pre-primary education to children’s performance at primary school and the linkage between the content of pre-primary and primary school curricula. The study used a mixed methods research design, employing questionnaires, interviews, observation, children’s tests and content analysis as data collection and generation tools. Simple random, stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used to obtain a sample of 411 participants, involving policy makers, parents, children and teachers. The results of this study show that the provision of pre-primary education in Tanzania tends to focus mainly on promoting academic competence, with little focus on promoting social, emotional and psychomotor competences. As such, the provision of pre-primary education in Tanzania does not promote children’s holistic learning. The results also reveal that developmentally inappropriate teaching methods, such as lecturing and writing notes on the board for children to copy, are predominantly used in pre-primary classes. Nevertheless, the study indicated that primary school children with pre-primary school experience perform better than their peers without such experience in terms of academic and socio-emotional outcomes. Additionally, the study revealed that the content of the curricula used in pre-primary classes and primary school standard I is linked appropriately. However, teachers’ lack of specialized training in early childhood education results in an overlap of learning experiences between the two levels. The study recommends that the pre-primary education curriculum be re-examined with a view to integrating all learning areas. The study also recommends the rigorous and specialized training of pre-primary and primary school standard I and II teachers.