Scaling enhanced use of education data at sub-national level in support of greater equity and inclusion in Tanzanian schools

 

The reversal of the ban on new mothers returning to school in Tanzania signals an opportunity to drive greater equity and inclusion in schools. Yet despite the annual release of basic education statistics, minimal analysis of disaggregated education data at the sub-national level limits the understanding of the challenges to be addressed in retaining girls in school. CAMFED’s Data for Education Excellence model has proven to harness data and stakeholder capacity to target barriers to girls’ education.

This project aims to reduce school dropout rates and encourage re-enrolment of marginalized girls in Tanzania by strengthening national and sub-national data systems and their utilization. It will research how Tanzania’s education data systems can embed and adapt this model to enable greater responsiveness to marginalized students and enhance feedback loops to inform national policies, systems, structures and processes. The project will include: an assessment of the barriers to enhanced education data use at sub-national level; qualitative testing and participatory action research examining the extent to which the Data for Education Excellence model strengthens data use in both CAMFED partner and non-partner schools; and participatory research to support government stakeholders’ reflection on factors influencing the scaling of enhanced data use at sub-national level.

The project will: generate deeper knowledge of what it means to strengthen education data usage at sub-national level; strengthen the capacity of national government and school authorities to make informed decisions to adapt and scale tools for enhanced data use; build awareness among government and school stakeholders of how to use data to embed accountability; and deepen the development community’s understanding of what factors enable, incentivize and impede the use of data at the sub-national level.