Education 21
Education in the 21st Century

Executive Summary
The educated man in the 19th Century was expected to have good skills in handwriting arithmetic, spelling, and memory. And Education concentrated on teaching those skills. During the 20th Century we automated those skills, but traditional education continues to use 19th Century skills as “basic”. You must learn these first before you can move on. Why must you?
The employer in the 21st Century wants employees with 21st Century skills. 19th Century skills are secondary. They would prefer someone who could keyboard to someone who had good hand writing. The spreadsheet is one of the most widely used programs across almost all industries. But education stresses paper and pencil arithmetic. The World Wide Web has made memorization a thing of the past. Handwriting, spelling bees, mental arithmetic can be called unnecessary goods. Estimable skills but not essential to the workplace.
The most devastating blockade to education is the “standardized test”. A test attempts to predict what a student would do in the real world. Project based learning IS the real world; where a student gets things done and is evaluated by authentic assessment, rather than test score.
Postpone the alphabet until the child can read. Education and children will come to school reading and writing.
Scroll down for a detailed expansion of the Summary
The skills of the 21st Century (http://www.enabling.org/education21) .
I wrote this in 1990 and it states my vision today as well as it did then.
A major goal of the 20th century has been automation and streamlining of the 19th Century. The major goal of Education in the 20th Century seems to have been the preservation of 19th Century obsolescence. The traditional "3 R's" of Education need to be modified and a new set of Educational Basics developed if our children are to become effective workers in the 21st Century.
Reading, writing, and arithmetic were the basic tools of 19th Century education. Reading is the most important of these, now as it was then. It is so important that it will be treated in detail as the last section of this concept note.
Writing is a skill that includes two components: the creation of the thought, and the conversion of that thought so others can share it. In the 19th Century penmanship was essential if those thoughts were to be shared and handwriting was a course in itself. In the 21st Century keyboarding has replaced handwriting and is the most effective way to share one’s thoughts.
Writing has frequently been used as a punishment. And we wonder why students do not like to write. A keyboard is much easier to use than paper and pencil, especially when it comes to revisions. The purpose of writing is communication. Let the student concentrate on that communication, using a keyboard. Then teach them to handwrite that content.
This does not mean that hand written material does not have value in its own right. But handwriting is secondary to content and should be taught separately from creative writing. After the student has created work on a keyboard, transfer the meaning to paper and pencil.
This section ends with a two questions.
At what age can a baby learn to push a key? At what age can a baby learn to write a letter with a pencil?
Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics.
In the 19th Century if you could not do arithmetic you could not move forward in Science. In the 21st Century arithmetic has been automated. So children should be taught with arithmetic automated. Estimation will replace arithmetic. Accurate Estimation means that the estimate is within 10% of the actual. In most things we do, that works fine. We estimate 15% when we leave a tip. How many rolls of cloth are needed? But when we need the exact answer for business, we use a computer.
Arithmetic is the major cause of mathematics and science phobias. And by eliminating Arithmetic, Estimation can be used within a spreadsheet. The platform from which math and science are taught. There will be a needed increase in STEM students, and there are also implications for gender equality.
Standardized tests have become the most important goal and teaching has been focused on that goal. We are teaching students how to pass a test and this is not a skill valued in the workplace. We need to know what skills any employer seeks and teach those skills. Then give them a project that calls on those skills. Then evaluate the project and give a grade. This is Project Based Learning combined with Authentic Assessment. You teach the basics on level 1 and the children complete a task that calls on those skills. Level 2 expects you can do tasks and teaches you more. And they do a project and learn more…as long as you want. You are not giving them a test, you are looking to see what they can do.
In a standardized test, the student must find the right answer. In Project Based Learning there are many ways to find the right answer. Standardized tests are a barrier to Education and lead to stagnation. Project based learning lets the students find their own answer.
Does a person work better alone or as part of a team? There can be team projects in which the teams compete for the best. Put both boys and girls on the same team working together and competing with others. A good way to gender equality.
Reading
Postpone the alphabet until the child can read.
This seeming contradiction will lead to a paradigm shift in Reading and Education in general. The purpose of reading is to understand the meaning of the printed word.
The current approach to reading is based on the part of world language that is phonetic. Once you have decided on a phonetic approach, the course is fixed. Teach the letters of the alphabet and their sounds and learn words by saying them.
Consider how we learn to hear and speak. It was word by word.
Our strategy is to teach reading word by word.
Show the text paired with something that connects the word with its meaning -- a picture, an object, spoken words…
They understand the printed word, but do not have to know the alphabet. Use the words they can read to teach the alphabet in context. This will eliminate 85% of dyslexia.
And far and away the most important question is how old must a child be to be able to read. Before the child can speak! Parents should teach their children to read and speak at the same time. They will read before they can speak. Tie that in with keyboarding and they will be reading and writing the same way they speak and listen and have good number concepts and tactics.
And now comes the challenge presented by this Concept.
What do you teach a child coming to school with computer Internet skills? It might form the basis of on International Forum.
Moving forward, Tanzania will be creating the Curriculum of the 21st Century to answer the question: what do you teach a 21st Century child?
What does it take to change to the new system?
It takes enough hardware so that each child will have 2 hours per day on the computer. In the beginning this will be keyboarding and spreadsheets. Email and web search come next.
The teacher will deal with content and thought while off the computer and giving problems they must use the computer to solve for homework. They need to rate a project rather than score a test.
Textbooks are no longer required. Teachers are responsible for using their own supplementary material. Students always have copies of the required material.
My concept of Primary Education means the child can search material on the web, use it in a word processor and spreadsheet and print an integrated report. I expect to get to this stage in 2 years.
Professional development for teachers and staff will be overseen by the Enabling Support Foundation. The teacher presents a goal or lesson plan and an ESF specialist will suggest possible projects. It is on the job learning for the teacher as well as the students.
I do not know what additional costs this will entail, but rearranging, rather than addition, might work.
PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION IN TANZANIA
There are about 35 Million people and more than 120 ethnic groups in Tanzania. The national language is Kiswahili. For historical reasons English is the second official language.
Tanzania is one of the least developed countries in Africa. Luckily, the Tanzanian government understands the value of education when improving the quality of life. According to the Tanzanian education policy the language of teaching is Kiswahili in pre-primary and primary education in which English is a compulsory subject. In secondary education the language of teaching is English and Kiswahili is a compulsory subject.
Nevertheless, the poor command of English of both teachers and students is a major reason for academic under-achievement in secondary schools. Students start studying in English without proper preparation and are taught by teachers who in many cases have a low level of proficiency in English. Some teachers do their best and attend evening classes to acquire better language skills. However, it is expensive and time-consuming, and not even available everywhere.
The number of private schools is growing and affluent families send their offspring into these schools that use English as the medium of instruction already in primary schools. Unfortunately these schools are hardly better – their teachers are often not able to use English properly or lack teacher training altogether.
Tanzania has tried to find solutions to these problems. The country uses the help of its own experts, the British Council and also numerous experts from Finland to improve their teacher trainees´ language and pedagogical skills. However, there is little efforts to meet the above mentioned problems
Likewise, Tanzania is among the countries that have shown high commitment to offering education for all people. Tanzania recognizes that education is a right of every individual. It also recognizes that inclusive education is a better option towards the achievement of Education for All (EFA) strategy. Tanzania’s plans to implement inclusive education are well stipulated in the National Strategy on Inclusive Education 2009-2017. The objectives of the National Strategy on Inclusive Education to ensure that:
1) Education policies and programmes are informed by inclusive values and practices
2) Teaching and learning respond to the diverse needs of learners
3) Educational support is available for all learners
4) Professional capabilities for inclusive education are widened and strengthened
5) Community ownership of and participation in inclusive education are enhanced
Challenges facing the Implementation of Inclusive Education in Tanzania
Education systems throughout the world are faced with the challenge of providing an effective education for all children and adults. However, the challenges are more serious in developing countries such as Tanzania. Research by UNESCO (2009) indicates that about 75 million children of primary school age are not enrolled in school; more than half of these are girls and seven out of ten live in sub-Saharan Africa, or in South and West Asia. The majority of children who have less access or are more likely to be excluded from education include those from rural or remote communities and linguistic minorities, children in urban slums, children with disabilities, working children, children belonging to indigenous groups, nomadic children, and those affected by HIV/AIDS (ibid). Similarly, it is estimated that 774 million adults lack basic literacy skills and many others are in school, but not necessarily receiving quality education (UNESCO, 2008).
Evidence from research has shown that governments and policies in countries of the South are positive to the concept of inclusive education, yet the process of implementation remains absent in most places (Eleweke and Rodda, 2002, UNESCO, 2004). There are many challenges that hinder effective implementation of inclusive education. According to Lewis (2007), such challenges include the need to:
1) Define inclusive education, and its relationship to the concept of quality education.
2) Balance work on increasing educational access/enrolment with efforts to improve the quality of education.
3) Promote a more holistic view of inclusion.
4) Budget for inclusive education work.
5) Collect data on marginalization problems, in particular how to work better with communities/stakeholders to identify the most hidden of excluded children.
6) Revise teacher education in a way that makes learning about inclusive education the norm for every teacher, rather than a specialist area of study.
7) Achieve increased flexibility in curriculum development to match the flexibility required by a successful inclusive education system.
8) Strengthen the rights base for inclusive education within national policies and plans.

On the brink of the 21st Century, the world is on the cusp of an education revolution, based on expanded and revitalized concept of what education means and the ways in which learning can be enhanced. In the advent of the third Millennium which is billed as a period of Science and Technology, Tanzania is still struggling and not fairing well as a member of the global era of science and technology. Education as a key input for social, economic, scientific and technological transformation has remained underdeveloped.
3.1 The Challenges of Education in Tanzania
Like all countries, Tanzania is bracing itself for a new century in every respect. The dawn of the new millennium brings in new changes and challenges of all sectors. the Education and Training sector has not been spared for these challenges. This is, particularly important in recognition of adverse/implications of globalisation for developing states including Tanzania. For example, in the case of Tanzania, globalisation entails the risks of increased dependence and marginalisation and thus human resource development needs to play a central role to redress the situation.
Specifically, the challenges include:-
1) The Globalisation Challenge
2) Access and Equity
3) Inclusive/Special Needs education
4) Institutional Capacity building
5) The HIV/AIDS Challenge
3.1.1 The Globalisation Challenges
Key Features and Challenges of globalisation that impact on education systems in the region could be summarised as follows:
Lack of information and communication infrastructure
It is argued that advances in information technology have reduced the need for learners to assemble in one place over a specified period in order to learn through distance learning. Rather, education system will have to become more flexible to fit in with and suit the needs of the learners. However, limited infrastructure in Tanzania make the use of modern technology and particularly the use of distance learning difficult because larger percentage of the Tanzania population live in the rural areas that do not have electricity, good transport networks and communication links.
The potential of modern technologies (computer, internets, radio, etc) to break through barriers of time and place has been acknowledged especially for the urban areas where NGOs and the private sector have made some commendable investments which have transformed teaching and learning in privileged urban communities.
Poor Teaching and Learning Environment
With the advert of globalisation, now techniques for more flexible training have been introduced and learners need to be equipped with a wide range of skills and to prepare them for a rapidly changing labour market.
Faced with large class sizes, poorly qualified teachers, irrelevant curricula and inadequate learning materials, Tanzania is challenged to deliver computer, basic numeracy and literacy skills at the basic levels.
Inadequate capacities to plan, manage, monitor and evaluate education provision at the local level
The increased devolution of responsibility from central organs to grassroots levels is encouraged by the introduction of new patterns of Government of Tanzania policy of organising and managing the delivery of education services. This is also fuelled by the increased participation of NGOs, the private sector and civil society in the provision of education.
An ultimate goal of any education system is to provide relevant and high quality education and training services to a broad range of clients in the most equitable effective and efficient ways. This entails building the management capacity at all levels in the efficient ways. At present there exist no institutional mechanism to promote co-ordination and allocation of resources, utilization of existing education and training facilities or harmonization of training programmes among the subsectors. The sector operates under difficult conditions characterized by underfunding, fragmentation and high internal and external inefficiency.
Problems caused by large numbers of uncoordinated development programs/projects
The traditional approval to the education development has been through the establishment of fragmented, narrow and stand alone projects. This approach has created a lot of difficulties in coordination, management and ineffective use of meager available resource.
Inadequate public sector spending in education
Total real government expenditure has increased over the last 10 years. per capita expenditure has also increased despite a population growth rate estimated at 2.8%. There is an average share of 24.2% of government recurrent discretionary expenditure to the sector. However, public sector spending on education is low (only 2.6% of GDP).
Commitment No.6 made by the World social summit held in Geneva in June 2000 on universal and equitable access to high quality education calls for government to take steps to ensure appropriate and effective expenditure of resources for universal access to basic education. it also recognizes that achieving education for all will require additional financial support by countries and increased development assistance and debt relief for education by bilateral and multilateral donors and that it is essential that new, concrete financial commitments be made by national governments and also by bilateral and multilateral donors, including the World Bank and regional development bankers by civil servants and by foundations.
Challenges with regard to improvement of quality of education
Current Trends in Students’ Achievement
In Tanzania, student achievement is measured through examinations which include Primary School Leaving examinations (PSLE) and Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) for standard seven and secondary education leavers respectively. Results produced by the National examinations Council (NECTA) of both Primary seven and Form IV indicate that boys perform better than girls the results also reveal that there is a wide variation across regions from 35% in Iringa to only 10.3% in Mtwara primary education level.
The document points emphasis on quality education at all levels and calls for regular reviews of the curriculum to improve its relevance and incorporate emerging issues among other goals. The paper acknowledges that primary education still faces many challenges:
1. Many eligible children were still out of school
2. Congestion was common in school
3. Many schools are poorly managed leading to wastage
4. Shortage of teaching staff a main challenge.
To address the above challenges, the paper outlines the following interventions;
1. Review staffing norms to ensure equitable distribution of teachers and ensure optimum utilization.
2. Government plans to rehabilitate schools that are in poor conditions especially in arid and semi-arid areas.
3. Provision of science equipments in selected schools.
4. In-servicing teachers in various domains to enhance their subjects’ mastery and intensifying supervision to guarantee quality.
The vision for education sector in Tanzania for 2030 is, “to have globally competitive quality education, training and research for sustainable development.”While the mission for education sector in Tanzania is to; “provide, promote, and coordinate the provision of quality education, training and research for empowerment of individuals to become responsible and competent citizens who value education as a lifelong process” (GOK, 2007).
To achieve this vision, strategic areas namely; access, quality equity, science, technology and innovation have been identified for support based on their impact on the economic, social and political pillars. Therefore, the Vision 2030 education reform process targets include:
1) Improve access through increased enrolment
2) Reduce illiteracy levels by about 80%
3) Transition rate must improve in primary to secondary schools from 47% to 70% and basic education should include secondary education.
4) Special needs education should be integrated in school system where schools also admit all students even those with special needs.
5) Transition rates from secondary education to tertiary education should rise from 3% to 8%
6) Expand access in tertiary or university education from 4% to 20%
7) Improve quality of education
8) Introduce environmental education to protect the environment.
9) Expand teacher education and training
From the above additional information, we request you to continue to expand your well designed concept note for partnership with us and our Government specifically in the ministry of Education in primary school and nursery schools where teachers coming from different Parties of our country who are teaching in primary school including those in secondary schools will be invited to come to our center to learn on how the concept of 21 century education approach are taught and implement in practical means to our teachers, pupils and parents. We will continue to supplement all information that we think can help you to include in our concept note.