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).

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

Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult Male: % of Males Aged 15 and Above data was reported at 83.205 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 83.378 % for 2012. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult Male: % of Males Aged 15 and Above data is updated yearly, averaging 77.506 % from Dec 1988 (Median) to 2015, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 83.378 % in 2012 and a record low of 71.366 % in 1988. Tanzania TZ: Literacy Rate: Adult Male: % of Males 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).

Adult literacy rate of United Republic of Tanzania jumped by 5.15% from 78.00 % in 2015 to 82.02 % in 2022. Since the 1.74% fall in 2010, adult literacy rate shot up by 20.97% in 2022. Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.

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).

View yearly updates and historical trends for Tanzania Adult Literacy Rate. Source: World Bank. Track economic data with YCharts analytics.

82.02 (%) in 2022. Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.

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 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).

View yearly updates and historical trends for Tanzania Youth Literacy Rate. Source: World Bank. Track economic data with YCharts analytics.

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).

Tanzanie: Female literacy rate, ages 15-24: Pour cet indicateur, UNESCO fournit des données pour la Tanzanie de 1988 à 2022. La valeur moyenne pour Tanzanie pendant cette période était de 80.32 pour cent avec un minimum de 72.77 pour cent en 2010 et un maximum de 85.13 pour cent en 2022.

82,0 (%) 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.

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.

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 Education Achievement (Ross, 1991). These standards require sample estimates of important pupil population characteristics to be (a) adjusted by weighing procedures designed to remove the potential for bias that may arise from different probabilities of selection, and (b) have sampling errors for the main criterion variables that are of the same magnitude or smaller than a simple random sample of 400 pupils (thereby providing 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).

The desired target population in Zambia was 'all pupils at the Grade 6 level in the eleventh month of the school year, 1995, who were attending registered government and grant-aided schools in the country'. The number of schools and pupils in the desired, excluded, and defined population have been presented in Table 2.2 of the Sample Report provided as external resources. From the defined target population a probability sample of schools (with probability proportional to the Grade 6 enrolment in each school) was drawn. This resulted in a planned national sample of 165 schools and 3,300 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 0.3 1 - which was about the same as had been expected At the first stage of sampling, schools were selected with a probability proportional to the number of pupils who were members of the defined target population. To achieve this selection a 'random start - constant interval' procedure 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. Sampling weights were used to adjust for the disproportionate allocation of the sample across districts and also to account for the small loss of student data due to absenteeism on the day of the data collection.

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

All of the team leaders for the data collectors returned the instruments to the Ministry Headquarters (for the attention of the NRC), during the second week after the test administration. Once the instruments were returned to the Headquarters, three data entry staff within the Statistical Section of the Ministry entered the data, using the Data Entry Manager (DEM) a software programme developed at the IIEP (Schleicher, 1995). This software was adapted specifically for the entry of SACMEQ data. The data entry took six weeks and the data were sent on diskette to IIEP in March, 1996. It must be mentioned that at the time of data entry, the earlier version of the DEM structure files was used, and this caused major problems in cleaning the data at a later stage and reconstituting the structure of the files as they were meant to be.

Response rate

The planned sample was designed to contain 165 schools allocated across provinces, as shown in the first column of figures in Table 2.3 of the Survey Report provided as external resources. The achieved sample of schools was 157. The response rates for the sample have been recorded in Table 2.3. The percentage response for schools was 95.2 percent and that of pupils was 77.5 percent. The non-responding pupils were those who were absent on the day of testing. By province, this absenteeism varied from 2 to 12 percent.

Sampling error estimates

In the survey report provided as external resources, standard errors were provided for all important variables. The calculation of these errors acknowledged that the sample was not a simple random sample - but rather a complex two-stage cluster sample that included weighting adjustments to compensate for variations in selection probabilities. The errors were

TZ：非文盲率：成年女性：15岁及以上女性百分比在12-01-2015达73.094%，相较于12-01-2012的73.347%有所下降。TZ：非文盲率：成年女性：15岁及以上女性百分比数据按年更新，12-01-1988至12-01-2015期间平均值为62.172%，共5份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于12-01-2012，达73.347%，而历史最低值则出现于12-01-1988，为48.088%。CEIC提供的TZ：非文盲率：成年女性：15岁及以上女性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

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 only Zanziba.

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 Zanzibar, the desired target population was "all pupils enrolled in Standard 6 in the ninth month of the school year (i.e., in September 2000)". The net enrolment ratio in Zanzibar in 2001 was 76.0. However, it was decided to exclude certain pupils. These were pupils in schools having fewer than 20 Standard 6 pupils in them and pupils in special schools. In all 138 pupils from 10 schools were excluded but this only amounted to 0.6 percent of all pupils. In Zanzibar there were 161 schools having 22,179 pupils in 2000. After excluding the 0.6 percent of pupils, the defined population from which a sample had to be drawn consisted of 22,041 pupils from 151 schools.

Note: Detailed descriptions of the sample design, sample selection, and sample evaluation procedures have been presented in the "Zanzibar 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 A team of eight persons from the Ministry of Education were appointed and trained in the use of WINDEM, a special data entry package to be used in SACMEQ. They were supervised by one person trained during the main training at IIEP Paris.

The numbers of keystrokes required to enter one copy of each data collection instrument were as follows: pupil booklet: 300; pupil reading test: 85; pupil mathematics test: 65; teacher booklet: 681; teacher reading test: 51; teacher mathematics test: 53; school head questionnaire: 319; school form: 58; and pupil name form: 51.

In the case of Zanzibar the total number of keystrokes was as follows: pupil booklet: 754,200; pupil reading test: 213,690; pupil mathematics test: 163, 410; teacher booklet: 247,203; teacher reading test: 9,945; teacher mathematics test: 9,116; school head questionnaire: 46,255; school form: 8,410; and pupil name form: 128,214. That is, a total of 1,580,443 keystrokes were required to enter all of the data for Zanzibar.

An experienced keyboard operator can work at a rate of 25 keystrokes per minute (working from multi-paged questionnaires and stopping occasionally to clarify individual questionnaire entries with the supervisor). Assuming that this kind of work rate could be sustained for, say, around a maximum of six hours per day, then the whole data entry operation for Zanzibar was estimated to amount to around 176 person days of data entry work. This implied an estimated five weeks of work for the eight-person data entry team that operated in Zanzibar. However, the work was completed in 28 weeks from November 2000 to June 2001 because only few computers were available for the work.

At the end of this procedure the data files were sent by e-mail to the 'Monitoring Educational Quality Unit' at the IIEP in Paris. Many consistency checks were made for many variables as well as for the identification codes used. The IIEP team had many queries. The first data files were sent to Paris in 15 June 2001 and after 27 cleaning cycles that took almost two years (22 months) of cleaning the files were finally declared to be clean on 23 April 2003.

Response rate

Response rates for pupils and schools respectively were 87% and 100%.

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.