Tanzania

With a gift to Room to Read in Tanzania, you can provide life-changing educational resources to children who face the greatest barriers in gaining a quality education. Every contribution goes toward the most pressing priorities, including: 

Literacy

Exploring paths toward improving reading and writing at scale for Grade 1 students 

In 2025, Room to Read will take a significant step forward in improving literacy for children in Tanzania. We've worked closely with government education officials to develop a new Grade 1 curriculum that helps children learn to read and write effectively. To roll out these new materials, Room to Read plans to initiate a comprehensive "Training of Trainers" approach that will engage and support master trainers from local education departments to learn about the new materials, then coach other educators on utilizing the materials in classrooms.

This approach, which Room to Read plans to initially test in the districts of Mkuranga and Temeke, has the potential to sustainably improve students’ learning at scale. We plan to carefully evaluate this approach to assess the effectiveness of trainings and teacher knowledge, skills and abilities. This assessment will also examine class size and pilot testing as key factors, providing insights for refining our approach at scale.

A portion of your investment will help fuel these critical trainings and support our government partnership to create a sustainable literacy ecosystem, ensuring all children in Tanzania have the opportunity to develop foundational reading skills for lifelong learning. 

Finalizing teaching and learning materials for Grade 2 

Building upon the Grade 1 learner books and teacher guides, Room to Read is now working to support the development of revised Grade 2 materials in partnership with the government. After these Grade 2 materials are finalized — complementing the Grade 1 materials recently rolled out — Room to Read will reach at least two new districts with its "Training of Trainers" model, equipping local education ministries and educators to incorporate the new and improved Grade 1 and Grade 2 materials in classrooms.

Your support, by investing in the development of these high-quality, foundational learning materials and the subsequent roll-out, is providing invaluable resources to ensure teachers throughout Tanzania are prepared and better equipped to support students as they learn how to read and write. 

Expansion to Zanzibar 

In 2025, we will explore expanding our programming to Zanzibar through a feasibility study. Zanzibar, which operates under a semi-autonomous government structure within the United Republic of Tanzania, represents a strategic opportunity to leverage Room to Read’s existing Swahili resources to reach more students, for both its Literacy and Girls’ Education and Gender Equality work.

With your support, Room to Read will be able to explore local partners and potential opportunities to replicate its impact from Tanzania on the neighboring island.  

Gender Equality

Incorporating life skills lessons in more Tanzanian classrooms  

With the successful integration of our life skills framework into Tanzania’s national guidelines, we are excited to deepen our collaboration with the government and like-minded organizations dedicated to life skills education. In 2025, we will explore how we can develop life skills educational materials to be integrated into subjects such as English, Geography and Tanzania History and Values.

These materials would be accompanied by our comprehensive training and coaching content for educators, ensuring they are well-equipped to support their students. Our training will emphasize gender-transformative teaching approaches, ensuring that educators can effectively teach both boys and girls in inclusive classroom environments.

Your generous support will play a pivotal role in transforming Tanzania's educational landscape, enabling the next generation to pursue their dreams with confidence and purpose. 

Creating tomorrow’s leaders today 

In 2025, we will expand life skills education to more adolescents across more regions. In the Tanga district, we have tested a shortened two-year life skills curriculum, modeled after our comprehensive seven-year program, which provides girls with critical life skills, mentorship and innovative curriculum elements that build leadership, resilience and problem-solving abilities. Through the two-year program, we train educators to facilitate life skills lessons in after-school workshops.

This approach is helping more adolescents benefit from life skills education in schools not directly supported by Room to Read. In 2025, we will introduce this model in several new districts in the Tanga region, toward the goal of reaching more adolescents, much faster, in the coming years.

Your investment would help ignite this transformative change, giving more girls the skills, confidence and opportunities to break cycles of poverty and inspire lasting social transformation.