Dar es Salaam – The Dubai Cares has come up with two early childhood development programmes, one each for mainland Tanzania and semi-autonomous island Zanzibar.
The Dubai Cares is a part of Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives.
Currently pre-primary enrolment rate in schools in the country is 34.4 percent and the programmes are just what was needed for the 23 million population under the age of 18.
The programme was first launched in October 2013 and has shown positive results. Improved enrolment rate has been witnessed and quality of higher learning has been increased too at more than thirty schools.
Chief executive officer of Dubai Cares, Tareq Al Gurg, said the programmes have been a success in East Africa and in recent years Tanzania too has achieved great progress in facilitating access to early education programmes.
He added they are pleased to work with the local partners and government too in Tanzania to improve pre-primary education quality that will reflect in the overall improvement of education standards. In about four years the programmes are expected to reach 54,400 beneficiaries.
The programme is named as Fursa Kwa Watoto in mainland which means Opportunities For Children. It implements two models including satellite centers in rural areas where primary schools are far away.
The programme is also committed to train up 780 and 300 pre-primary teachers in mainland and Zanzibar respectively.
Until now the story of education is not rosy in the country and urgent push is necessary.
