Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult: % of People Aged 15 and Above data was reported at 77.887 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 78.101 % for 2012. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult: % of People Aged 15 and Above data is updated yearly, averaging 69.431 % from Dec 1988 (Median) to 2015, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 78.101 % in 2012 and a record low of 59.114 % in 1988. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult: % of People Aged 15 and Above data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Tanzania – Table TZ.World Bank.WDI: Education Statistics. Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

Graph and download economic data for Literacy Rate, Adult Total for the United Republic of Tanzania (SEADTLITRZSTZA) from 1988 to 2022 about Tanzania, literacy, adult, and rate.

Historical dataset showing Tanzania literacy rate by year from 1988 to 2022.

Adult literacy rate of United Republic of Tanzania jumped by 5.15% from 78.0 % in 2015 to 82.0 % in 2022. Since the 1.74% reduction in 2010, adult literacy rate shot up by 20.97% in 2022. Adult (15+) literacy rate (%). Total is the percentage of the population age 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life. Generally, ‘literacy’ also encompasses ‘numeracy’, the ability to make simple arithmetic calculations. This indicator is calculated by dividing the number of literates aged 15 years and over by the corresponding age group population and multiplying the result by 100.

Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth Female: % of Females Aged 15-24 data was reported at 84.641 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 84.848 % for 2012. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth Female: % of Females Aged 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 77.866 % from Dec 1988 (Median) to 2015, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 84.848 % in 2012 and a record low of 72.771 % in 2010. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth Female: % of Females Aged 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Tanzania – Table TZ.World Bank.WDI: Education Statistics. Youth literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult Female: % of Females Aged 15 and Above data was reported at 73.094 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 73.347 % for 2012. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult Female: % of Females Aged 15 and Above data is updated yearly, averaging 62.172 % from Dec 1988 (Median) to 2015, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 73.347 % in 2012 and a record low of 48.088 % in 1988. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult Female: % of Females Aged 15 and Above data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Tanzania – Table TZ.World Bank.WDI: Education Statistics. Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth: % of People Age 15-24 data was reported at 85.755 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 85.940 % for 2012. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth: % of People Age 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 81.753 % from Dec 1988 (Median) to 2015, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 85.940 % in 2012 and a record low of 74.561 % in 2010. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth: % of People Age 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Tanzania – Table TZ.World Bank.WDI: Education Statistics. Youth literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth Male: % of Males Aged 15-24 data was reported at 87.013 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 87.174 % for 2012. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth Male: % of Males Aged 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 86.204 % from Dec 1988 (Median) to 2015, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 87.174 % in 2012 and a record low of 76.491 % in 2010. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Youth Male: % of Males Aged 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Tanzania – Table TZ.World Bank.WDI: Education Statistics. Youth literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

Tanzania TZ: Gender Parity Index (GPI): Literacy Rate: Youth Aged 15-24 data was reported at 0.973 Ratio in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.973 Ratio for 2012. Tanzania TZ: Gender Parity Index (GPI): Literacy Rate: Youth Aged 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 0.951 Ratio from Dec 1988 (Median) to 2015, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.973 Ratio in 2012 and a record low of 0.903 Ratio in 1988. Tanzania TZ: Gender Parity Index (GPI): Literacy Rate: Youth Aged 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Tanzania – Table TZ.World Bank: Education Statistics. Gender parity index for youth literacy rate is the ratio of females to males ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

The general literacy rate (i.e. literacy among population aged 5 years and above) was 72 percent. Literacy rate was highest among those aged between 10 and 44 years and was also higher among the urban population (89 percent) than the rural population (64 percent).

Abstract

The Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) is a consortium of Ministries of Education and Culture located in the Southern Africa subregion. This consortium works in close partnership with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). SACMEQ’s main aim is to undertake co-operative educational policy research in order to generate information that can be used by decision-makers to plan the quality of education. SACMEQ’s programme of educational policy research has four features which have optimized its contributions to the field of educational planning: (1) it provides research-based policy advice concerning high-priority educational quality issues that have been identified by key decision-makers in Southern Africa, (2) it functions as a co-operative venture based on a strong network of Ministries of Education and Culture, (3) it combines research and training components that are linked with institutional capacity building, and its future directions are defined by participating ministries. In each participating country, a National Research Co-ordinator is responsible for implementing SACMEQ’s projects.

The SACMEQ I Project commenced in 1995 and was completed in 1999. The SACMEQ I main data collection was implemented in seven SACMEQ Ministries of Education (Kenya, Mauritius, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zanzibar, and Zimbabwe). The study provided "agendas for government action" concerning: educational inputs to schools, benchmark standards for educational provision, equity in the allocation of educational resources, and the reading literacy performance of Grade 6 learners. The data collection for this project included information gathered from around 20,000 learners; 3,000 teachers; and 1,000 school principals.

This co-operative sub-regional educational research project collected data in order to guide decisionmaking in these countries with respect to questions around high priority policy issues. These included: • What are the baseline data for selected inputs to primary schools? • How do the conditions of primary schooling compare with the Ministry of Education and Culture’s own bench-mark standards? • Have educational inputs to schools been allocated in an equitable fashion? • What is the basic literacy level among pupils in upper primary school? • Which educational inputs to primary schools have most impact on pupil reading achievement at the upper primary level?

In 1995 there were five fully active members of SACMEQ: Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe. These Ministries of Education and Culture participated in all phases of SACMEQ’s establishment and its initial educational policy research project. There are also four partially active members of SACMEQ: Kenya, Tanzania (Mainland), Malawi, and Swaziland. These Ministries of Education and Culture have made contributions to the preparation of the Project Plan for SACMEQ’s initial educational policy research project. Three other countries (Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa) had observer status due to their involvement in SACMEQ related training workshops or their participation in some elements of the preparation of the first proposal for launching SACMEQ.

Geographic coverage

National coverage.

Analysis unit

• Pupils
• Schools
• Teachers

Universe

The target population for SACMEQ's Initial Project was defined as "all pupils at the Grade 6 level in 1995 who were attending registered government or non-government schools". Grade 6 was chosen because it was the grade level where the basics of reading literacy were expected to have been acquired.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A stratified two-stage sample design was used to select around 150 schools in each country. Pupils were then selected within these schools by drawing simple random samples. A more detailed explanation of the sampling process is available under the 'Sampling' section of the report provided as external resources.

All sample designs applied in the study were selected so as to meet the standards set down by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (Ross, 1991). These standards required (a) a response rate of at least 90 percent for schools and, where necessary, sampling weights to be calculated to remove the potential for bias that may arise from different probabilities of selection, and (b) to have sampling errors that allow generalizations to be made from the sample to the total learner population with a 95 percent certainty of being correct within plus or minus 5 percent for a percentage, and one tenth of a learner standard deviation unit for a mean.

The desired target population in Namibia was 'all learners at the Grade 6 level in 1995 at the eighth month of the school year who were attending government or registered private schools in the country'. The sample had to be selected early in 1995 at a stage when no information was available on 1995 enrolments. Schools were thus selected on the basis of their August 1994 Grade 6 enrolments. It was decided to exclude two very remote schools which were not typical (Oranjemund Private School and Gam Primary School), the Eluwa school for deaf and blind children, and schools which had fewer than 10 learners in Grade 6 in 1994. The schools with very low Grade 6 enrolment were excluded to avoid the complications of having to create groups of 20 learners by clustering several schools into 'pseudo schools'. The percentage of learners thus excluded was very small, while the number of excluded schools was 37 out of 708 schools; these schools accounted for only 0.7 percent of learners in the desired population. Schools were stratified by education region. A division into urban and rural would have required a subjective classification. There are relatively few private schools in Namibia, of which many are staffed by government, and hence the distinction between private and government schools was not made. The resultant numbers of schools and learners in each of the education regions have been given in Table 2.2 of the Survey Report provided as external resources.

From the defined population a probability sample of schools was drawn, with the probability being proportional to a school's 1994 enrolment in Grade 6. A minimum of 20 schools was chosen in each education region to ensure that the regional population mean scores would be estimated within +5 percent with a 95 percent probability. Sampling weights were applied in the final analysis to adjust the results in such a way as to adjust for different probabilities of selection which included adjustments for the different sizes of the regions. Corrections were also made for data missing as a result of, for example, absenteeism. The national sample included 158 schools, of which two very large schools each represented a learner enrolment equivalent to two schools, thus bringing the number of 'schools' to 160.As already stated, the first stage of sampling involved selecting schools with a probability proportional to the number of learners who were members of the defined target population.To achieve this, a 'random start - constant interval' procedure (Ross, 1992) was applied. In one region, Rundu, there were schools with the number of Grade 6 learners exceeding the 'constant interval', and therefore each of these schools was randomly divided into smaller 'pseudo schools' before the commencement of the actual sampling.

Sampling deviation

In each school selected at the first stage of sampling, two Grade 6 classes were randomly selected with a probability proportional to the number of learners in each class if the school had more than one class, otherwise the single class was included in the sample. Out of each of these classes, 20 learners were randomly selected to avoid overcrowding during the test administration and because the accuracy of sampling does not increase significantly if more learners are tested. This procedure deviated from the technique applied by the other SACMEQ countries, which randomly selected 20 learners out of all Grade 6 learners in each selected school. Namibia had chosen this procedure as it intended to undertake a multi-level analysis (the levels being learner, class, and school) and thus had to test a sufficient number of learners in each class represented in the sample. This, however, implied that where there were more than two classes in Grade 6 in a school, then the within-school variance might be either overestimated or underestimated because there was the possibility of streaming within schools. The planned sample size and the actual number of learners tested have been shown in Table 2.3.of the Survey Report provided as external resources. Between zero percent and 1.7 percent of the differences between planned and achieved learners can be ascribed to small schools in the sample, with less than 20 Grade 6 enrolments; the rest of the differences resulted from learner absenteeism on the day of testing.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The data collection for SACMEQ's Initial Project took place in October 1995 and involved the administration of questionnaires to pupils, teachers, and school heads. The pupil questionnaire contained questions about the pupils' home backgrounds and their school life; the teacher questionnaire asked about classrooms, teaching practices, working conditions, and teacher housing; and the school head questionnaire collected information about teachers, enrolments, buildings, facilities, and management. A reading literacy test was also given to the pupils. The

TZ：非文盲率：成年人：占15岁及以上人群百分比在12-01-2015达77.887%，相较于12-01-2012的78.101%有所下降。TZ：非文盲率：成年人：占15岁及以上人群百分比数据按年更新，12-01-1988至12-01-2015期间平均值为69.431%，共5份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于12-01-2012，达78.101%，而历史最低值则出现于12-01-1988，为59.114%。CEIC提供的TZ：非文盲率：成年人：占15岁及以上人群百分比数据处于定期更新的状态，数据来源于World Bank，数据归类于全球数据库的坦桑尼亚 – 表 TZ.世行.WDI：教育统计。

Abstract

The Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) is a consortium of Ministries of Education and Culture located in the Southern Africa subregion. This consortium works in close partnership with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). SACMEQ’s main aim is to undertake co-operative educational policy research in order to generate information that can be used by decision-makers to plan the quality of education. SACMEQ’s programme of educational policy research has four features which have optimized its contributions to the field of educational planning: (1) it provides research-based policy advice concerning high-priority educational quality issues that have been identified by key decision-makers in Southern Africa, (2) it functions as a co-operative venture based on a strong network of Ministries of Education and Culture, (3) it combines research and training components that are linked with institutional capacity building, and ? its future directions are defined by participating ministries. In each participating country, a National Research Co-ordinator is responsible for implementing SACMEQ’s projects.

SACMEQ’S Initial Project commenced in February 1995. During 1995-1998 seven Ministries of Education participated in the Project, in Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe.This co-operative sub-regional educational research project collected data in order to guide decisionmaking in these countries with respect to questions around high priority policy issues. These included: • What are the baseline data for selected inputs to primary schools? • How do the conditions of primary schooling compare with the Ministry of Education and Culture’s own bench-mark standards? • Have educational inputs to schools been allocated in an equitable fashion? • What is the basic literacy level among pupils in upper primary school? • Which educational inputs to primary schools have most impact on pupil reading achievement at the upper primary level?

In 1995 there were five fully active members of SACMEQ: Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe. These Ministries of Education and Culture participated in all phases of SACMEQ’s establishment and its initial educational policy research project. There are also four partially active members of SACMEQ: Kenya, Tanzania (Mainland), Malawi, and Swaziland. These Ministries of Education and Culture have made contributions to the preparation of the Project Plan for SACMEQ’s initial educational policy research project. Three other countries (Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa) had observer status due to their involvement in SACMEQ related training workshops or their participation in some elements of the preparation of the first proposal for launching SACMEQ.

Geographic coverage

The surveys had national coverage of the countries participating in the project, which include Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe.

Analysis unit

Units of analysis in the survey included schools and individuals

Universe

The target population for SACMEQ's Initial Project was defined as "all pupils at the Grade 6 level in 1995 who were attending registered government or non-government schools". Grade 6 was chosen because it was the grade level where the basics of reading literacy were expected to have been acquired.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A stratified two-stage sample design was used to select around 150 schools in each country. Pupils were then selected within these schools by drawing simple random samples.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The data collection for SACMEQ’s Initial Project took place in October 1995 and involved the administration of questionnaires to pupils, teachers, and school heads. The pupil questionnaire contained questions about the pupils’ home backgrounds and their school life; the teacher questionnaire asked about classrooms, teaching practices, working conditions, and teacher housing; and the school head questionnaire collected information about teachers, enrolments, buildings, facilities, and management. A reading literacy test was also given to the pupils. The test was based on items that were selected after a trial-testing programme had been completed.

The Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) is a consortium of Ministries of Education and Culture located in the Southern Africa subregion. This consortium works in close partnership with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). SACMEQ’s main aim is to undertake co-operative educational policy research in order to generate information that can be used by decision-makers to plan the quality of education. SACMEQ’s programme of educational policy research has four features which have optimized its contributions to the field of educational planning: (1) it provides research-based policy advice concerning high-priority educational quality issues that have been identified by key decision-makers in Southern Africa, (2) it functions as a co-operative venture based on a strong network of Ministries of Education and Culture, (3) it combines research and training components that are linked with institutional capacity building, and ? its future directions are defined by participating ministries. In each participating country, a National Research Co-ordinator is responsible for implementing SACMEQ’s projects. SACMEQ’S Initial Project commenced in February 1995. During 1995-1998 seven Ministries of Education participated in the Project, in Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe.This co-operative sub-regional educational research project collected data in order to guide decisionmaking in these countries with respect to questions around high priority policy issues. These included: • What are the baseline data for selected inputs to primary schools? • How do the conditions of primary schooling compare with the Ministry of Education and Culture’s own bench-mark standards? • Have educational inputs to schools been allocated in an equitable fashion? • What is the basic literacy level among pupils in upper primary school? • Which educational inputs to primary schools have most impact on pupil reading achievement at the upper primary level? In 1995 there were five fully active members of SACMEQ: Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe. These Ministries of Education and Culture participated in all phases of SACMEQ’s establishment and its initial educational policy research project. There are also four partially active members of SACMEQ: Kenya, Tanzania (Mainland), Malawi, and Swaziland. These Ministries of Education and Culture have made contributions to the preparation of the Project Plan for SACMEQ’s initial educational policy research project. Three other countries (Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa) had observer status due to their involvement in SACMEQ related training workshops or their participation in some elements of the preparation of the first proposal for launching SACMEQ.

Abstract

In 1991 the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and a number of Ministries of Education in Southern and Eastern Africa began to work together in order to address training and research needs in Education. The focus for this work was on establishing long-term strategies for building the capacity of educational planners to monitor and evaluate the quality of their basic education systems. The first two educational policy research projects undertaken by SACMEQ (widely known as "SACMEQ I" and "SACMEQ II") were designed to provide detailed information that could be used to guide planning decisions aimed at improving the quality of education in primary school systems.

During 1995-1998 seven Ministries of Education participated in the SACMEQ I Project. The SACMEQ II Project commenced in 1998 and the surveys of schools, involving 14 Ministries of Education, took place between 2000 and 2004. The survey was undertaken in schools in Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zanzibar.

Moving from the SACMEQ I Project (covering around 1100 schools and 20,000 pupils) to the SACMEQ II Project (covering around 2500 schools and 45,000 pupils) resulted in a major increase in the scale and complexity of SACMEQ's research and training programmes.

SACMEQ's mission is to: a) Expand opportunities for educational planners to gain the technical skills required to monitor and evaluate the quality of their education systems; and b) Generate information that can be used by decision-makers to plan and improve the quality of education.

Geographic coverage

The survey covered Mainland Tanzania.

Analysis unit

• Pupils
• Teachers
• Schools

Universe

The target population for SACMEQ's Initial Project was defined as "all pupils at the Grade 6 level in 1995 who were attending registered government or non-government schools". Grade 6 was chosen because it was the grade level where the basics of reading literacy were expected to have been acquired.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample designs used in the SACMEQ II Project were selected so as to meet the standards set down by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. These standards required that sample estimates of important pupil population parameters should have sampling accuracy that was at least equivalent to a simple random sample of 400 pupils (thereby guaranteeing 95 percent confidence limits for sample means of plus or minus one tenth of a pupil standard deviation unit).

Some Constraints on Sample Design Sample designs in the field of education are usually prepared amid a network of competing constraints. These designs need to adhere to established survey sampling theory and, at the same time, give due recognition to the financial, administrative, and socio-political settings in which they are to be applied. The "best" sample design for a particular project is one that provides levels of sampling accuracy that are acceptable in terms of the main aims of the project, while simultaneously limiting cost, logistic, and procedural demands to manageable levels. The major constraints that were established prior to the preparation of the sample designs for the SACMEQ II Project have been listed below.

Target Population: The target population definitions should focus on Grade 6 pupils attending registered mainstream government or non-government schools. In addition, the defined target population should be constructed by excluding no more than 5 percent of pupils from the desired target population.

Bias Control: The sampling should conform to the accepted rules of scientific probability sampling. That is, the members of the defined target population should have a known and non-zero probability of selection into the sample so that any potential for bias in sample estimates due to variations from "epsem sampling" (equal probability of selection method) may be addressed through the use of appropriate sampling weights (Kish, 1965).

Sampling Errors: The sample estimates for the main criterion variables should conform to the sampling accuracy requirements set down by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (Ross, 1991). That is, the standard error of sampling for the pupil tests should be of a magnitude that is equal to, or smaller than, what would be achieved by employing a simple random sample of 400 pupils (Ross, 1985).

Response Rates: Each SACMEQ country should aim to achieve an overall response rate for pupils of 80 percent. This figure was based on the wish to achieve or exceed a response rate of 90 percent for schools and a response rate of 90 percent for pupils within schools.

Administrative and Financial Costs: The number of schools selected in each country should recognize limitations in the administrative and financial resources available for data collection.

Other Constraints: The number of pupils selected to participate in the data collection in each selected school should be set at a level that will maximize validity of the within-school data collection for the pupil reading and mathematics tests. The Specification of the Target Population For Tanzania the desired target population was all pupils enrolled in Standard 6 in the ninth month of the school year (i.e., in the first week of December 2000). A decision was made to exclude pupils in special schools and those in schools which had fewer than 20 Standard 6 pupils which led to the establishment of the defined target population.

Tanzania there were 10,786 schools having 529,296 Standard 6 pupils. The excluded population was 17,942 pupils from 1,270 schools which was 3.3 percent of all pupils. The defined population from which a sample had to be drawn consisted of 511,354 pupils from 9,516 schools.

Note: Detailed descriptions of the sample design, sample selection, and sample evaluation procedures have been presented in the "Tanzania Working Report".

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The data collection for SACMEQ’s Initial Project took place in October 1995 and involved the administration of questionnaires to pupils, teachers, and school heads. The pupil questionnaire contained questions about the pupils’ home backgrounds and their school life; the teacher questionnaire asked about classrooms, teaching practices, working conditions, and teacher housing; and the school head questionnaire collected information about teachers, enrolments, buildings, facilities, and management. A reading literacy test was also given to the pupils. The test was based on items that were selected after a trial-testing programme had been completed.

Cleaning operations

Data Entry and Data Cleaning Six persons from the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) and MOEC were appointed and trained in the use of WINDEM, a special data entry package to be used in SACMEQ. NECTA and MOEC computers were used for Data entry and data cleaning. The process was facilitated by written instructions and follow- up support from IIEP staff in the basic steps mainly via the internet and permitted the NRCs to: (i) identify major errors in the sequence of identification numbers, (ii) cross-check identification numbers across files (for example, to ensure that all pupils were linked with their own reading and mathematics teachers), (iii) ensure that all schools listed on the original sampling frame also had valid data collection instruments and vice-versa, (iv) check for "wild codes" that occurred when some variables had values that fell outside pre-specified reasonable limits, and validate that variables used as linkage devices in later file merges were available and accurate.

The volume of information required to be entered and cleaned in the code sheets was immense despite the user friendliness of the software thus perseverance and experience of keyboard operation was required. The following can help one imagine the volume of work entered. Data collection instruments contained the follows information to be coded: school form: 58; pupil name form: 51; pupil questionnaire: 150; pupil reading test: 85; pupil mathematics test: 65; teacher questionnaire: 587; teacher reading test: 51; teacher mathematics test: 43; and school head questionnaire: 319. All the data entered were sent to the IIEP for checking in order to ensure that there were no errors such as inconsistencies or wild values. The IIEP then sent back the data to Tanzania for cleaning, after which the Ministry sent it back to IIEP for further checks. This process continued until the data was absolutely clean, and it took 21 months to complete (March 2001and November 2002).

Response rate

Response rates for pupils and schools respectively were 77% and 98%.

Sampling error estimates

The sample designs employed in the SACMEQ Projects departed markedly from the usual "textbook model" of simple random sampling. This departure demanded that special steps be taken in order to calculate "sampling errors" (that is, measures of the stability of sample estimates of population characteristics).

Abstract

In 1991 the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and a number of Ministries of Education in Southern and Eastern Africa began to work together in order to address training and research needs in Education. The focus for this work was on establishing long-term strategies for building the capacity of educational planners to monitor and evaluate the quality of their basic education systems. The first two educational policy research projects undertaken by SACMEQ (widely known as "SACMEQ I" and "SACMEQ II") were designed to provide detailed information that could be used to guide planning decisions aimed at improving the quality of education in primary school systems.

During 1995-1998 seven Ministries of Education participated in the SACMEQ I Project. The SACMEQ II Project commenced in 1998 and the surveys of schools, involving 14 Ministries of Education, took place between 2000 and 2002. The survey was undertaken in schools in Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zanzibar.

Moving from the SACMEQ I Project (covering around 1100 schools and 20,000 pupils) to the SACMEQ II Project (covering around 2500 schools and 45,000 pupils) resulted in a major increase in the scale and complexity of SACMEQ's research and training programmes.

Geographic coverage

The surveys had national coverage of the countries participating in the project, including Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania (including Zanzibar), Uganda, Zambia.

Analysis unit

Units of analysis in the survey included schools and individuals

Universe

The target population for SACMEQ's Initial Project was defined as "all pupils at the Grade 6 level in 1995 who were attending registered government or non-government schools". Grade 6 was chosen because it was the grade level where the basics of reading literacy were expected to have been acquired.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A stratified two-stage sample design was used to select around 150 schools in each country. Pupils were then selected within these schools by drawing simple random samples.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The data collection for SACMEQ’s Initial Project took place in October 1995 and involved the administration of questionnaires to pupils, teachers, and school heads. The pupil questionnaire contained questions about the pupils’ home backgrounds and their school life; the teacher questionnaire asked about classrooms, teaching practices, working conditions, and teacher housing; and the school head questionnaire collected information about teachers, enrolments, buildings, facilities, and management. A reading literacy test was also given to the pupils. The test was based on items that were selected after a trial-testing programme had been completed.

TZ：性别对等指数（GPI）：非文盲率：青年15-24岁在12-01-2015达0.973Ratio，相较于12-01-2012的0.973Ratio有所下降。TZ：性别对等指数（GPI）：非文盲率：青年15-24岁数据按年更新，12-01-1988至12-01-2015期间平均值为0.951Ratio，共5份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于12-01-2012，达0.973Ratio，而历史最低值则出现于12-01-1988，为0.903Ratio。CEIC提供的TZ：性别对等指数（GPI）：非文盲率：青年15-24岁数据处于定期更新的状态，数据来源于World Bank，数据归类于全球数据库的坦桑尼亚 – 表 TZ.世界银行：教育统计。

Abstract

The Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) is a consortium of Ministries of Education and Culture located in the Southern Africa subregion. This consortium works in close partnership with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). SACMEQ’s main aim is to undertake co-operative educational policy research in order to generate information that can be used by decision-makers to plan the quality of education. SACMEQ’s programme of educational policy research has four features which have optimized its contributions to the field of educational planning: (1) it provides research-based policy advice concerning high-priority educational quality issues that have been identified by key decision-makers in Southern Africa, (2) it functions as a co-operative venture based on a strong network of Ministries of Education and Culture, (3) it combines research and training components that are linked with institutional capacity building, and its future directions are defined by participating ministries. In each participating country, a National Research Co-ordinator is responsible for implementing SACMEQ’s projects.

The SACMEQ I Project commenced in 1995 and was completed in 1999. The SACMEQ I main data collection was implemented in seven SACMEQ Ministries of Education (Kenya, Mauritius, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zanzibar, and Zimbabwe). The study provided "agendas for government action" concerning: educational inputs to schools, benchmark standards for educational provision, equity in the allocation of educational resources, and the reading literacy performance of Grade 6 learners. The data collection for this project included information gathered from around 20,000 learners; 3,000 teachers; and 1,000 school principals.

This co-operative sub-regional educational research project collected data in order to guide decisionmaking in these countries with respect to questions around high priority policy issues. These included: • What are the baseline data for selected inputs to primary schools? • How do the conditions of primary schooling compare with the Ministry of Education and Culture’s own bench-mark standards? • Have educational inputs to schools been allocated in an equitable fashion? • What is the basic literacy level among pupils in upper primary school? • Which educational inputs to primary schools have most impact on pupil reading achievement at the upper primary level?

In 1995 there were five fully active members of SACMEQ: Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe. These Ministries of Education and Culture participated in all phases of SACMEQ’s establishment and its initial educational policy research project. There are also four partially active members of SACMEQ: Kenya, Tanzania (Mainland), Malawi, and Swaziland. These Ministries of Education and Culture have made contributions to the preparation of the Project Plan for SACMEQ’s initial educational policy research project. Three other countries (Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa) had observer status due to their involvement in SACMEQ related training workshops or their participation in some elements of the preparation of the first proposal for launching SACMEQ.

Geographic coverage

National coverage.

Analysis unit

• Pupils
• Schools
• Teachers

Universe

The target population for SACMEQ's Initial Project was defined as "all pupils at the Grade 6 level in 1995 who were attending registered government or non-government schools". Grade 6 was chosen because it was the grade level where the basics of reading literacy were expected to have been acquired.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A stratified two-stage sample design was used to select around 150 schools in each country. Pupils were then selected within these schools by drawing simple random samples. A more detailed explanation of the sampling process is available under the 'Sampling' section of the report provided as external resources.

In Malawi, from the defined target population, a probability sample of schools (with probability proportional to the total enrolment in Grade 6 in each school) was drawn. Twenty-five schools were sampled from five Divisions, while 30 schools were sampled from Central West Division. This resulted in a planned national sample of 155 schools and 3,100 pupils. The sample design was designed to provide an 'equivelent sample sixe' (Ross and Wilson, 1994) of 400 pupils, based on an estimated intra-class correlation (rho) for pupil reading test scores of around 0.35.

Within selected schools, a simple random sample of 20 Standard 6 pupils was drawn. The figure of 20pupils was chosen because, from practical experience it was known that increasing the number of pupils within schools above this figure would increase the accuracy of sampling by a negligible amount, but might also increase the cost of the data collection considerably. There were also concerns among the SACMEQ NRCs that conditions in many schools would not permit a valid administration of the reading rest if more than 20 pupils per school were involved.

At the first stage of sampling, schools were selected with probability proportional to the number of pupils who were members of the defined target population. To achieve this selection a 'random start-constant interval' procedute was applied (Ross, 1987). In several strata there were some schools with numbers of pupils in the defined target population that exceeded the size of the 'constant interval', and therefore each of these schools was randomly broken into smaller 'pseudo schools' before the commencement of the sampling.

At the second stage of sampling a simple random sample of 20 pupils was selected within each selected school.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The data collection for SACMEQ's Initial Project took place in October 1995 and involved the administration of questionnaires to pupils, teachers, and school heads. The pupil questionnaire contained questions about the pupils' home backgrounds and their school life; the teacher questionnaire asked about classrooms, teaching practices, working conditions, and teacher housing; and the school head questionnaire collected information about teachers, enrolments, buildings, facilities, and management. A reading literacy test was also given to the pupils. The test was based on items that were selected after a trial-testing programme had been completed.

The SACMEQ Data Collection Instruments include the following documents: - SACMEQ Questionnaires - which are administered to pupils, teachers, and school heads. - SACMEQ Tests - which are administered to pupils and teachers (covering reading mathematics, and HIV-AIDS knowledge). - Other SACMEQ Data Collection Instruments - such as take-home pupil questionnaires, school context proformas, and within-school project management documents.

Cleaning operations

In February 1999, the IIEP arranged a training workshop in Malawi for the data entry team and members of the SACMEQ team. Data entry then commenced and the whole exercise took three weeks. This activity was followed by six days of data cleaning which removed 'wild codes' and any major inconsistencies in the data.

Response rate

In Table 2.3 of the Report (The Quality of Primary Education in Malawi - provided as external resources), it may be seen that only seven schools withdrew completely from the data collection. However, a major problem occured with the data loss at the pupil level, where only 1,983 valid pupil responses were obtained from the planned sample of 3,100 pupils. That is, around a third of the pupil data were missing.

The reasons for this extremely high level of pupil non-response were varied. However, two of the major problems were the lack of transport for data collectors, and pupil absenteeism on the day of testing. The data loss was particularly severe in the North, South East and Shire Highlands Divisions- where around 50 percent of the pupil data were missing.These levels of data loss were far larger than had been set down as part of the quality control standards for SACMEQ's initial project.

Sampling error estimates

Details on calculation of sampling errors are available on pages 13-14 of the attached report.

Abstract

The Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) is a consortium of Ministries of Education and Culture located in the Southern Africa subregion. This consortium works in close partnership with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). SACMEQ’s main aim is to undertake co-operative educational policy research in order to generate information that can be used by decision-makers to plan the quality of education. SACMEQ’s programme of educational policy research has four features which have optimized its contributions to the field of educational planning: (1) it provides research-based policy advice concerning high-priority educational quality issues that have been identified by key decision-makers in Southern Africa, (2) it functions as a co-operative venture based on a strong network of Ministries of Education and Culture, (3) it combines research and training components that are linked with institutional capacity building, and its future directions are defined by participating ministries. In each participating country, a National Research Co-ordinator is responsible for implementing SACMEQ’s projects.

The SACMEQ I Project commenced in 1995 and was completed in 1999. The SACMEQ I main data collection was implemented in seven SACMEQ Ministries of Education (Kenya, Mauritius, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zanzibar, and Zimbabwe). The study provided "agendas for government action" concerning: educational inputs to schools, benchmark standards for educational provision, equity in the allocation of educational resources, and the reading literacy performance of Grade 6 learners. The data collection for this project included information gathered from around 20,000 learners; 3,000 teachers; and 1,000 school principals.

This co-operative sub-regional educational research project collected data in order to guide decisionmaking in these countries with respect to questions around high priority policy issues. These included: • What are the baseline data for selected inputs to primary schools? • How do the conditions of primary schooling compare with the Ministry of Education and Culture’s own bench-mark standards? • Have educational inputs to schools been allocated in an equitable fashion? • What is the basic literacy level among pupils in upper primary school? • Which educational inputs to primary schools have most impact on pupil reading achievement at the upper primary level?

In 1995 there were five fully active members of SACMEQ: Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe. These Ministries of Education and Culture participated in all phases of SACMEQ’s establishment and its initial educational policy research project. There are also four partially active members of SACMEQ: Kenya, Tanzania (Mainland), Malawi, and Swaziland. These Ministries of Education and Culture have made contributions to the preparation of the Project Plan for SACMEQ’s initial educational policy research project. Three other countries (Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa) had observer status due to their involvement in SACMEQ related training workshops or their participation in some elements of the preparation of the first proposal for launching SACMEQ.

Geographic coverage

National coverage.

Analysis unit

• Pupils
• Schools
• Teachers

Universe

The target population for SACMEQ's Initial Project was defined as "all pupils at the Grade 6 level in 1995 who were attending registered government or non-government schools". Grade 6 was chosen because it was the grade level where the basics of reading literacy were expected to have been acquired.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A stratified two-stage sample design was used to select around 150 schools in each country. Pupils were then selected within these schools by drawing simple random samples. A more detailed explanation of the sampling process is available under the 'Sampling' section of the report provided as external resources.

All sample designs applied in SACMEQ's initial project were selected so as to meet the standards set down by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (Ross, 1991). These standards require sample estimates of important pupil population parameters to be (a) adjusted by weighting procedures designed to remove the potential for bias that may arise from different probabilities of selection, and (b) have sampling errors that are of the same magnitude or smaller than a simple random sample of 400 pupils (thereby guaranteeing 95 percent confidence limits for sample estimates of population percentages of plus or minus 5 percentage points, and 95 percent confidence limits for sample estimates of population means of plus or minus one tenth of a pupil standard deviation unit).

From the defined population in Mauritius, a probability sample of schools (with probability proportional to the Grade 6 enrolment in each school) was drawn. In Black River and Rodrigues all schools in the defined target population were selected into the sample. This resulted in a planned national sample of 159 schools and 3,180 pupils. This sample design was designed to yield an 'equivalent sample size' (Ross and Wilson, 1994) of 400 pupils based on an estimated intra-class correlation (rho) for pupil reading test scores of around 0.30. In fact, after the rho was calculated for the reading scores, it was found to be 0.21 - which was considerably lower than had been expected.

Within schools, a simple random sample of 20 pupils from all Grade 6 pupils was drawn. The figure of 20 pupils was selected because, from practical experience, it was known that increasing the number of pupils within schools above this figure would increase the accuracy of sampling by a negligible amount, but would increase the cost of the data collection considerably. There were also concerns among the SACMEQ NRCs that conditions in many schools would not permit a valid administration of the reading test if more than 20 pupils per school were involved.

Sampling deviation

There were nine pupils excluded from the desired population in one school on the island of Agalega. This island is situated about 100 kilometres from the main island. Communication is difficult to and from Agalega, and the expense of travel is high. At the same time, schools which had Grade 6 enrolments of fewer than 20 pupils were also excluded. There were seven such schools in the whole country and, taken with the one excluded school in Agalega, this resulted in eight schools being excluded out of a total of 283 schools. Altogether, there were 133 pupils excluded out of a total of 27,849 pupils. The excluded population of pupils represented less than half of 1 percent of all pupils in the desired target population. In the districts of Black River and Rodrigues, all schools in the defined target population were taken into the sample. This was because the Master Plan had identified these two districts as low-achieving areas compared with the rest of the country.Sampling weights were then applied to all data in order to ‘adjust’ for missing data and also to ensure that the relative size of the defined target population across school districts was accurately represented in the relative sizes of the weighted sample data across school districts.

The planned sample was designed to contain 159 schools allocated across districts. After the sample of schools was selected it was found that one school in the district of Riviere du Rempart had adopted an ‘International School’ curriculum for Grade 6 which was quite different from the approved Ministry curriculum. It was therefore decided to remove this school from the sample. The final achieved sample therefore contained 158 schools.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The data collection for SACMEQ's Initial Project took place in October 1995 and involved the administration of questionnaires to pupils, teachers, and school heads. The pupil questionnaire contained questions about the pupils' home backgrounds and their school life; the teacher questionnaire asked about classrooms, teaching practices, working conditions, and teacher housing; and the school head questionnaire collected information about teachers, enrolments, buildings, facilities, and management. A reading literacy test was also given to the pupils. The test was based on items that were selected after a trial-testing programme had been completed.

The SACMEQ Data Collection Instruments include the following documents: - SACMEQ Questionnaires - which are administered to pupils, teachers, and school heads. - SACMEQ Tests - which are administered to pupils and teachers (covering reading mathematics, and HIV-AIDS knowledge). - Other SACMEQ Data Collection Instruments - such as take-home pupil questionnaires, school context proformas, and within-school project management documents.

Cleaning operations

Once the instruments were returned to the main Ministry office they were checked to ensure that the correct number of pupil tests and questionnaires for pupils, teachers, and school heads were there. Each questionnaire was checked for completeness because there were not meant to be any missing data. A team of five data enterers had been trained by the NRC. One personal computer was available to be used full-time for the data entry. Three other computers could be used when available.

The Data Entry Manager (DEM) computer software developed at the IIEP (Schleicher, 1995) was used to manage the data entry. This software was adapted specifically for