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DAR ES SALAAM. — As Tanzania prepares to introduce free basic education for all, the government has warned that it will punish parents who fail to ensure their children go to school. In a major policy shift, primary and secondary schooling will be free for all Tanzanian children from January, as the government joins its East African neighbour Uganda in offering universal education free of charge.
George Masaju, Tanzania’s attorney general, warned that parents deemed to be holding back efforts to create a literate society by keeping children out of school would face punishment.
“Causing a child to drop from school for any reason is a criminal offense because you offend his fundamental right of being educated,” Masaju said late last month at a graduation ceremony at Feza School in Dar es Salaam.
The government’s move to scrap fees in primary schools in 2002 has helped to increase primary enrolment to 94 percent of children aged 7 to 13 years in 2011 from 59 percent in 2000, according to UNICEF.
But parents still had to pay for extras like school books and uniform as well as school fees for some secondary schools. The new policy aims to free families from any fees and contributions for 11 years of schooling.
While it is already compulsory for parents to send their children to class, parents have not been penalised in the past. — AFP.
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