Education for Self and National Reliance: The Challenge of Access, Equity and Quality in Private Higher Education Institutions in Tanzania

Abstract
Quality education is an important factor for a nation to make a leap forward in globalization. For sometimes in Tanzania, education has been a right of every citizen, but now is a commodity to be bought by those who can afford it. The introduction of Private Higher Education (PHE) institutions has brought back what the Arusha Declaration tried to avoid in Tanzania; the challenge of access, quality and equity. PHE institutions in the era of liberalization have made education a product for sale without care for access, equity and quality. Owing to the poverty of the general population, though PHE institutions in Tanzania outnumber public ones by far, they enrol only 21.5 % of the total number of students in a year. This paper looks at the history of education in Tanzania from colonial time, independence time (with Arusha declaration as a landmark) which introduced education for self and national reliance to the present time of quasi-capitalism. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of higher education during the time of Ujamaa vis a vis present time of mushrooming of PHE institutions focusing on access, quality and equity. The paper uses different documents, books, journal papers and conference papers to analyse higher education in Tanzania.
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Citation
Mbirigenda, S., 2015. Education for self and national reliance: The challenge of Access, Equity and Quality in Private Higher Education institutions in Tanzania.