The Board of Executive Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 an African Development Fund (ADF) loan of US $52.5 million for the Government of Tanzania to finance a Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Teacher Education Project in Tanzania.
Annually, on average 600,000 children who complete primary and secondary schools in Tanzania are not able to climb the education ladder any further due to limited access to TVET and tertiary education. Tens of thousands of children, youth, and teachers especially from rural areas are expected to benefit from this project, which is planned to be implemented over five years starting in 2014.
By 2025, Tanzania aims to become a Middle Income Country (MIC). In order to achieve this goal, the number of high-skilled workers needs to quadruple and medium-skilled workers need to double, translating to an additional 3 million high-skilled and 7 million medium-skilled workers by 2025.
Designed to support Tanzania's Development Vision 2025, this project will contribute to increased access, quality and equity of TVET and training of secondary school teachers in science and mathematics. Its primary purpose is to help bridge the skills gap and increase access to post-primary and post-secondary education.
"The project will have a substantial impact on economic development in light of the discovery of natural gas in Tanzania and its expected investment boom over the next decade. It seeks to improve the market relevance of technical education in key sectors such as agriculture and mining and accelerate inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction", said Agnes Soucat, AfDB's Director for Human Development.
More specifically, the project will support infrastructure investments in four new regional vocational education centers (Geita, Njombe, Rukwa, Simiyu) and nine existing TVET and higher-education institutions serving 8,000 trainees at any given time. It will also expand use of ICT in teaching and learning in 53 institutions. The project will provide training to over 2,600 Ministry staff and teachers to build capacity in curriculum design, policy formulation, planning and quality assurance in TVET and teacher education.
The ADF loan will finance 90% of the program while the Government will provide the remaining 10% of the total costs.
For more information see the Bank's Country Strategy Paper 2011-2015 for Tanzania, the Bank's Strategy 2013-2022 and the Human Capital Development page.
Contacts:
Media: Nawsheen Elaheebocus, Senior Human Development and Communication Officer, AfDB.
Project Manager: Keiko Takei, Senior Education Economist, AfDB.
