The rural and urban divide in early literacy acquisition in Tanzania: the mediating roles of home and school contexts

Early learning attainments of children of naturalized citizens of refugee backgrounds in the sub‐Saharan region: Evidence from Tanzania

“…In Tanzania, children from rural areas are generally just going to school, not learning at their grade levels (National Examination Council of Tanzania, 2020; Ndijuye & Tandika, 2022b). According to recent findings of government educational bodies and independent researchers, one to three out of every 10 children living in rural and urban households with low incomes could not read a sentence in Kiswahili (the native language of the Swahili people in Tanzania) even after spending 4 years in schools (Ndijuye & Beatus, 2022). Moreover, only 28% of second graders and 43% of fourth graders could do word problem subtraction.…”

“…Empirical evidence and reports by government bodies have identified significant challenges in Tanzania when facilitating learning attainment among children of naturalized citizens from refugee backgrounds. These include low‐quality or extremely old physical facilities, such as classrooms, libraries, and toilets; too many children per classroom; and multigrade teaching in primary schools (Ministry of Science, Education, and Technology, 2022; Ndijuye, 2020; Ndijuye & Beatus, 2022). Yet, we should avoid generalizing these shortcomings to the entire country because of variations across rural and urban areas and among the country's 26 regions.…”