A Wake-Up Call for Inclusive Education in Tanzania through GAWE 2025

Deep within Tanzania’s remote Katavi region, where overcrowded classrooms and scarce resources define the daily reality, the 2025 Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) shone a spotlight on an urgent crisis, a call to reclaim the promise of education for every child. Under the national theme“Inclusive Education for National Development,” education advocates and civil society organizations descended on Katavi-Mpimbwe to see the reality of education. Across seven schools, over the course of three days, we engaged with more than 5,000 students aged 7 to 18, as well as teachers, parents, and community leaders. What we found was sobering: children walking up to 20 kilometers a day to reach class, students learning on empty stomachs due to fragile school feeding programs that exclude those unable to contribute, and an alarming teacher shortage, with one teacher serving up to 139 students in some schools. Yet, the children showed up hopeful, curious, and resilient.

Tanzania's education landscape tells a broader story. While primary school enrollment has improved over the past two decades, more than 5.1 million children and adolescents aged 7–17 are still out of school, the majority from poor and rural households. In Katavi, cultural practices like “Chagulaga,” a traditional initiation that leads to early marriage, continue to push both girls and boys out of classrooms prematurely. Some boys are encouraged to fail on purpose, pressured into adulthood before they’re ready. Others drop out simply because there is no school infrastructure, textbooks, or food. Girls face an even steeper climb, with long commutes exposing them to sexual violence and teenage pregnancy, often without a clear understanding of their rights or Tanzania’s Re-entry Policy, which many students, community members, and parents mistakenly believe applies only to girls.

And yet, amid the systemic cracks, sparks of progress glimmer. In schools where civil society organizations are active, girls speak confidently about menstrual hygiene and reproductive health. Communities are slowly breaking the silence around disability, thanks to inclusive actions like the symbolic bell-ringing and whistle-blowing during the closing ceremony at Majimoto grounds, a public call to stop hiding children with disabilities and start embracing their right to education. During the opening and closing ceremonies, Hon. Mwanamvua Mrindiko, Katavi’s Regional Commissioner, and Hon Albert Msovela, Regional Administrative Secretary, reinforced the government’s stance on eliminating harmful cultural practices and called for stronger collaboration to protect every child’s right to learn.TEN/MET’s donation of 407 desks, 10 tables, and 10 chairs to four schools was a direct response to overcrowding and poor learning environments, an example of practical action rooted in deep listening and community insight.

Tai's, participation in GAWE 2025 as a proud member of the Tanzania Education Network / Mtandao wa Elimu Tanzania (TEN/MET) our team was on the ground, side by side with teachers and students, advocating for Sexual and Reproductive Health education, addressing harmful norms, and pushing for stronger implementation of the Re-entry Policy. We listened to boys who were told not to dream, and to girls who refused to give up. We left inspired and more committed to ensuring that storytelling, evidence, and youth voices remain at the heart of every education reform.

The road ahead demands bold, strategic partnerships. Organizations already embedded in Katavi, like Plan International, Shule Bora, and VUMA, are working to support the education sector in Katavi, but more should be done, from school feeding programs, SRH education, to teacher training. But real change requires more than programs; it needs political will, community accountability, and national urgency. The children of Katavi have already rung the bell. It’s time for all of us parents, policymakers, educators, and advocates to answer and empower generation of future doctors, teachers, innovators, and leaders.