ABSTRACT
As pointed out in Chapter 2, female students’ education is not only about schooling, nor is it only influenced by school-related factors; instead, it is impacted on by political and institutional factors, socio-economic and sociocultural factors. The governmental macro-level factors affect the supply for women’s participation in educational systems, while the micro-level factors are usually associated with the demand; the school-related factors seem to affect both supply and demand for female education. As stated by Odaga and Heneveld (1995), in-school and out-of-school factors
are interrelated and should be viewed as a unitary concern; hence, they suggest, home, community, school and governmental levels of the enabling environment should be addressed simultaneously. Most often, however, educational reforms and initiatives to reduce the gender inequalities in education are implemented in a substantial way in-school and are targeted at the schoolrelated factors – in accordance with the mandate and scope of educational policy. However, based on the knowledge and understanding of the complex and intersecting factors that have an impact on female education, this singular emphasis is insufficient and needs to be complemented essentially with the factors attached to the social and familial levels of the enabling environment. The encompassing review on ‘Girls and Schools in sub-Saharan Africa’ by
Odaga and Heneveld in 1995, which covers many country case studies, including Tanzania, and considers various topics and themes which influence girls’ and women’s education and schooling, constitutes one of the cornerstones of my study. Their investigation more than 20 years ago is complemented and mirrored by more recent studies encompassing the gendered patterns regarding access to education, attainment and performance. For instance, an extensive literature review on girls’ education and gender equality has been conducted by Unterhalter and her colleagues (Unterhalter et al. 2014). Based on the categorisation of factors having an impact on gender inequities in education by Odaga and Heneveld, and following their comprehensive and detailed list of barriers and problems for girls’ and women’s education and schooling in the developing countries, I have organised the core themes and contents for my study. ‘Political and institutional factors’ to contextualise the study, and to carry out a situational analysis of the education sector in Tanzania to learn
what has been done, what has been achieved, and what remains a challenge, will be presented in the next chapter. In this section the focus is on school-and home-and community-related issues (see the enabling environment in Figure 2.1). Thus, in the following sections, school-related and socio-economic and sociocultural factors, which significantly influence parental and familial decisionmaking in terms of whether to invest in female education, are discussed. The somewhat exhaustive list of factors that influence female education and schooling, which are related to the social and familial levels of the environment and school environment, is summarised in Table 5.1 and analysed in the two following sections.
