As of 2021, Tanzania had 1,738,843 students enrolled in pre-primary schools. About 5% of these (86,942 students) are enrolled in private schools. The actual per unit cost for financing pre-primary education is around USD 25 per month, which is equivalent to USD 300 per year and approximates to a market opportunity of USD 26 million per year (4, 15).

Pre-primary enrolment has increased in absolute terms from 1,034,729 pupils in 2012 to 1,562,770 in 2016 and was projected to grow to 1,738,843 students by 2021 (15). The country’s rapid urbanization and growing middle class offers increased demand for day care services (18).

More than 25%

Short Term (0–5 years)

(Short to medium term) – Private school investments are likely to produce a cash-flow in the short to medium term depending on the quality and the speed of the marketing/branding process to attract pupils (36).

The global private rate of return to schooling is 10% for every year of schooling. This recent estimates comes from data from 139 economies. The returns are highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania besides South Africa and Ethiopia (39).

Less than USD 500,000

The net enrolment for pre-primary education is estimated to have reached 44.6% in Tanzania, which is one of the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. With 95% of pre-primary students enrolled in public school, the public system faces capacity pressures, and low enrolment of age-appropriate children, leading to some children entering Standard I without having passed through pre-primary (9, 21).
Pre-primary enrolment has grown from 1,562,770 in 2016 to 1,738,843 in 2021 at an estimated growth rate of 2% annually, resulting in an increase of the average number of students per teacher from 112 to 135, which compromises quality education delivery and results in a lack of appropriate learning infrastructure (21).

Affordable day care centers reduce the pressure on available pre-school institutions and increase the enrolment rate for pre-primary schools. They offer quality care and education through specialized teachers, which meets and exceeds the recommendations of the National Pre-Primary Curriculum (22).
Early child education lays the foundation for promoting a well educated and learning society. The early childhood period plays a critical role in a child’s life, since any developmental and growth domain gaps at this time can have a lifelong impact, restricting children’s ability to realise their full potential later on in their lives (15, 16).

People: Low-income families enjoy pre-primary education services, which supports the development of the children and offers new economic and social opportunities to the parents.
Gender inequality and/or marginalization: Women, particularly female headed households enjoy greater opportunities to pursue income generating opportunities while their children are in pre-primary education institutions

Corporates: Educational and pedagogical service providers and partners access new market opportunities.
Public sector: The government benefits from additional options to provide pre-primary education for children under the age of five years, and enhanced levels of healthy human capital development paths.

People: The general population benefits from higher levels of engaged youth and job opportunities in the private schools.

Gender inequality and/or marginalization: Women and urban poor communities as well as youth are able to secure employment opportunities in the schools (e.g security services, cleaning, catering, supply of equipment’s etc)

Corporates: Secondary enterprises (i.e., large companies and SMEs) can benefit from the construction of day care centers and servicing them with e.g., office supplies, energy and telecommunication services etc

If the pre-primary schools target primarily higher performing students and / or focus on students from higher-income households, leaving disadvantaged youths in the public system, they may exacerbate existing inequalities and draw away public education funds (11).

A limited pool of qualified pre-primary school teaching staff locally may necessitate outsourcing, which may increase operation costs and result in unaffordable service provision (11).

If the day care centers are unaffordable to students from low-income communities or inaccessible to those outside of the urban hotspots, only those already served by public institutions may benefit and the expected impact may be limited (21).

If affordable day care centers are not complemented with other essential services, such as school transportation programme, to address accessibility issues for children living in hard-to-reach areas, the impact may be limited especially for marginalised communities (15).

A limited pool of qualified teaching staff may limit the resultant job opportunities for Tanzanians, and the lack of physical infrastructure available may not allow to serve communities at scale, which may reduce the expected impact (15).

Tanzania Development Vision, 2025: Seeks to transform the education system right from the pre-primary shool level so that it can develop the country’s human capital in tandem with socio-economic changes.(24).

Education and Training Policy, 2014: Stresses the importance of pre-primary and primary school education. It emphasises that pre-primary education is compulsory for a period of not less than one year in order to meet children’s needs (25).

Child Development Policy, 2008: Provides guidelines to the fulfilment of children‟s rights, welfare and development in Tanzania in terms of physical, mental and spiritual growth. The Policy was compiled in accordance to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (26)

Education Policy 1978: The policy describes the role of the private sector in primary and secondary education. The Policy also sets out a 14-point criteria upon which a school can be granted or denied registration (41, 42)

Financial incentives: The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) offers grants totaling USD 112 million to build on Tanzania’s efforts to get more children in school. Investor will benefit from a special package for girls and children from disadvantaged backgrounds (31).

Fiscal incentives:Tanzania offers import duty and VAT exemption on deemed capital goods, including building materials, utility vehicles and equipment. Private schools are among the potential beneficiaries of the scheme (32).

The Education Act of 1978: Allowed private sector to operate schools in Tanzania. It set conditions to be fulfilled. The policy affords private schools’ moderate levels of autonomy. They can set teacher salaries, deploy and dismiss teachers (subject only to labor laws) but they have to adhere to centralized requirements on teacher qualifications, class sizes, and pedagogy (41,42).

Law of the Child Act, 2009: Guarantees the child’s right to education, and stipulates that parents, legal guardians and those having custody of children have the duty to provide the child with the right to education and guidance (29).

Education Fund Act, 2001: Seeks to establish an Education Fund to improve access to and equality of education at all educational levels in Tanzania and Zanzibar (30).

Private sector

Aga Khan Nursery School (run by the Agakhan Foundation)

Haki Elimu

My World Preschool & Day Care Msasani

Alnegar daycare & Nursery school

Happy Kids Puzzles

Chameleons Pre-School

Active Tots Zone – Pre School & Day Care

Government

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST)

Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE)

Tanzania Teachers’ Union (TTU).

Multilaterals

UNICEF

Global Partners for Education (GPE).

Non-Profit

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)

Tanzania Early Childhood Development Network (TECDEN)

Children in Crossfire (CiC).

Public-Private Partnership

Not available