Tanzania's Smart Classrooms Let One Teacher Instruct Students Across Multiple Schools at Once

On Monday in Mwanza region, Deputy Minister Dr Festo Dugange watched a single teacher instruct pupils at two primary schools at once. The schools, Samia and Kanemwa, sit in different wards. The link between them was a smart classroom and a smartboard, part of a government program that officials say is beginning to change how lessons reach children in Tanzania.

The program is the Early Childhood and Primary Education Infrastructure Improvement Project, known as BOOST. It pays for building smart classrooms, buying ICT equipment and training teachers and students, and it covers all 26 regions of the country. Dugange, who serves in the Prime Minister's Office for Regional Administration and Local Government, toured schools in the region to see the results. He said the technology has made teaching simpler, made teachers more efficient and widened access to quality education wherever a child lives. In his account, it also answers part of the teacher shortage, since one teacher can now cover classes in several schools.

The money behind it is substantial. At Samia Primary School, the government provided more than Sh 200 million for ten classrooms and teaching and learning materials. At Kigongo Primary School in Misungwi District, Dugange inspected buildings that cost Sh 141 million, including a smart classroom and a modern early childhood classroom. Mwanza has 26 BOOST-built schools in all. Samia's headmaster, Chacha Joseph, noted that Idetemya Ward alone received ten of them. Dugange credited the investment to President Samia Suluhu Hassan and said teachers and parents must now work together so pupils study well and the buildings are looked after.

Joseph described what Samia received: a smart classroom with 20 computers and one smartboard. He said it has strengthened the use of technology in lessons and built the ability of teachers and pupils to use ICT. Students, he said, are picking up basic computer skills, learning digitally and practicing a range of subjects. He added that Mwanza has kept performing well despite its large enrollment, ranking second nationally in last year's Primary School Leaving Examination pass rates.

At Kigongo, ICT teacher Silvano Pamba made the same point about shortages, saying one teacher can now serve more than one school at a time. He also said the technology has helped improve teachers' personnel records and raised pupils' enthusiasm. Mwanza Regional Administrative Secretary Dr Fatma Mganga said the project has improved the education sector through its investment in infrastructure and technology.

Residents offered their own views. Charles Mayela of the Mkapa Street Government in Igoma Ward said ICT has boosted pupils' abilities and prepared them for global technological change, and he thanked the president for bringing such classrooms to the school. George Ngole of Kigongo said children now study in a better environment and receive an education equal to what urban schools offer, with internet-based teaching easing teachers' stress and giving rural pupils the same knowledge as their urban peers. Hellena Kafipa of Kasene, also in Misungwi, said modern rooms meeting pupils' needs have ended the problem of poor classroom infrastructure. Witness Kigongo, a fifth-grader at Kigongo Primary, said the smart classroom helps her learn faster and gain more skill with ICT.

Most of these assessments come from officials, school staff and residents speaking during a government-led visit, and the reporting offers no independent measurement of learning gains. What to watch is whether the multi-school teaching model spreads beyond the demonstration and whether outside data bears out the improvements described.