Tanzania, a country in East Africa, has faced many years of poverty and hardships under its government that bled into the education department. Due to a lack of support in finding teachers, supplies, and high dropout rates in the education system, it took a while for someone to find a solution to ease the transition of teaching English. 

The national language in Tanzania is Swahili (Kiswahili), with English as the second most common. In Tanzania, there is no push to learn English at a young age, which causes children to drop out and be left in a pitfall without the opportunity to learn and the inability to be employed in higher-paying jobs. 

The setbacks that children face in Tanzania are not their fault. Despite the education system’s flaws, there is a group of hardworking people who are using technology to help bridge the English gap and keep students in school.

Selfless Solutions (E-Shuleni)

After a volunteer trip to Tanzania, Patrick Irwin saw how much the children in Tanzania wanted to learn, but didn’t have the resources to learn. Irwin wanted to make a change in providing education and using technology to bridge the language barrier, and seeing the motivations of the kids encouraged Irwin to keep going.

“When you see with your own eyes just how much the kids are developing thanks to the work of our organization and all the people involved, it gives you a lot of motivation to continue to do the things that aren’t necessarily as fun,” Iwrin said. 

“E-Shuleni” is the technology used as a way to help children transition to learning English with more ease. For seven years, children are taught Swahili, and once the students complete primary school, an abrupt switch to learning English happens. This switch often causes struggles to keep up with the curriculum, and many students drop out. 

Struggles in Education

The education system in Tanzania, though scoring high rates on their exams, continues to struggle with other problems: overcrowding, teacher shortages, financial struggles, and resource gaps are just some of the problems that they still face. 

Poor proficiency in English as the medium of instruction was a major factor contributing to higher dropout rates in early secondary grades, according to a study by Consortia Academy. School records revealed that many students…struggled to understand lessons and communicate effectively in English…This language barrier created significant learning challenges, limiting students’ participation in class and their ability to perform well in assessments, ultimately contributing to early school withdrawal.

These problems, though not significant to just Tanzania, are problems that many surrounding countries face. However, the problems of education and solutions to fix those problems are focused solely on Tanzania, because each country is different. 

Focusing on education in just Tanzania with the Selfless Solutions program, Irwin believes that this will, in turn, bring more support and a steady footing underneath. Instead of trying to branch out to different countries. 

“We are focused on strengthening and sustaining existing programs that we have rather than expanding into new areas,” Irwin said. “Our program is designed to scale and expand across Tanzania, but it may not be suitable for neighboring countries like Kenya and Uganda.”

Since 2019, when Selfless Solutions was founded, this program has created a bright and supportive future for the children in Tanzania. 

Future of Selfless Solutions

Following the success and positive results from the pilot of “E-Shuleni,” the enterprise of teaching children English has expanded to seeking new partnerships and groups.

Selfless Solutions expanded “E-Shuleni” to the new “E-Shuleni” Reading Club. The reason behind this is the first class that used this technology, the children completed the full e-learning program. These children have now moved to grade 5, aiding in the improvement of children who surpass the dropout rate when they start to learn English. 

The students come together every week to read, practice, and stay connected to English. Irwin believes that hope and self-belief are not contained in the classroom, and that a child is influenced when they are at home or in their community. Selfless Solutions creates a groundwork and steadiness for more things in life, not just education.

– Elizabeth Fryer

Elizabeth is based in Philadelphia, PA, USA and focuses on Good News and Technology for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Selfless Solutions