1. Background Information: Brief History of Citizenship Education
‘‘For a democracy to survive and flourish, a critical mass of its citizens must possess the skills, embody the values, and manifest behavior that accords with democracy. Citizen participation in a democratic society must be based on informed, critical reflection, understanding and acceptance of the rights and responsibilities that go with that citizenship. Civic education thus plays a very critical role in this regard in ensuring responsible democratic citizenship’’
It is a matter of fact that one of the key elements of democratic culture which forms part of the principles of Good Governance is ‘People’s Participation’. This principle can be easily achieved through open communication, consultation and dialogue among and between citizens and the state organs. It is however worthy noting that participation without awareness may lead to embarrassment and to avoid this, civic education becomes and remains to be a necessary information package to every citizen.
Tanzania’s Civic Education which in loose terms encompasses Voter Education too; dates back to Colonial times and has been evolving from time to time with regime changes and creativity of Ministers responsible for the respective portfolio. From struggles against colonialism in the early 60’s and nation-building in the decade that followed to continental liberation vibes and the return to democracy in the 1990s, Civic education has evolved simultaneously with the times.
Alongside, Civic education Contents and delivery methods changed over time. Colonial Civic education was limited in scope and purpose by emphasizing ‘modernity’ values, teaching people to abide by law and order as well as respect and obedience to colonial officials. The emphasis then was fulfillment of all obligations of Africans as subjects to their masters while encouraging dependency, passivity and docility. It is unfortunate to learn that the Colonial times Civic education discouraged local initiatives, pro-activeness, inquisitiveness and independent thinking and innovation.
Following ‘flag’ independence in 1961 and soon thereafter, Tanzania under the Leadership of President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere offered a set of Nation building values through Civics in schools and the general public got what was called ‘Adult Education’. Such values included Unity, tolerance in social diversity, hard work, discipline, respect and acceptance of leadership and judicious use of public and private resources. The National School Curriculum under Socialism era which was called ‘Civics’ transformed and became ‘Political Education’ and soon incorporated values such as equality and cooperation in economic activities as well as solving social problems through self-help groups and associations. On the other hand, Civic Education to the general public was organized as Adult Education with similar emphasis but carefully trying to control Workers movements from unionizing to become branches of the ruling party, then TANU and later CCM.
The post Ujamaa (Socialism) period witnessed again change from Political Education in schools to Civics at lower levels of education, General Studies at Advanced Level of Secondary Education and Development Studies as a compulsory subject for all study disciplines at University level. While Civic Education to the general public was almost entirely left to the Non State actors, voter’s education was distinctly given to the Election Management Bodies in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar. Later on, the Government of Tanzania came up with the National Strategy for Civic Education in 2011 which today is being reflected in several legislations as would be painted in this article. A well informed and active Citizenry guarantees the quality of policies, laws and budgets for development plans and programs. It requires a reasonable amount of voices in many ways to legitimate any public pronouncements, all of which require civic competence of the citizenry bed rocked on well-organized formal and informal civic education.
It is therefore important and a matter of urgency for Regional, International, National as well as Community organizations to enhance civic awareness among citizens, particularly the youths to make sure they are competent enough to be active citizens and influence development programs, Policies and processes.
2. Definition of Citizenship Education - So, what is Civic Education in a Tanzanian Context?
Civic Education is the totality of skills, knowledge, information and experiences provided to a citizenry to enable participation in public life.
Satu Riutta defines Civic education as ‘teaching people about their rights and responsibilities.
Civic education is an important tool to awaken citizens to take up responsibilities and claim their rights. In an attempt to progress towards deepening democracies, many of developing countries including Tanzania, potentially encounter an obvious challenge of passive citizenry in raising the bar of Citizen participation. Meaningful civic education is that education which will empower citizens to get organized and engage to help nations to prosper through social economic and political contributions of enlightened citizens.
This being a contribution to CENESA, a regional network of organizations engaged in Civic education, the definition above sits well with the broad objective where ‘Civic Education is more than knowing the rights and obligations but rather ‘a process that impacts people’s knowledge, skills, beliefs, behavior, norms and values in order to be active, responsible and democratic citizen’.
More importantly, what defines Civic Education is its role, functions and importance to individual citizens as well as to society as a collective. Few lines hereunder which underpin the importance and role of Civic education include:
Strengthening citizenry and Civil society’s vibrancy
Enhance citizen ability to politically engage at local, regional and international levels
Creates social capital
Prepares young citizens for life in multicultural societies
Builds tolerant attitudes of citizens in plural societies
Creates awareness of democratic values
3. Non-formal Citizenship Education
The Pedagogy and related means of delivering Civic Education in Tanzania is multifaceted in such a way that the recipient (Citizen) get what has been decided by the Regulators, promoters and providers.
Most of the lucky children and youth in formal schools get what has been planned in the School or College/ University Curriculum while those out of school young people and the majority citizens get through informal means at Pre, during and post electoral periods of the Electoral cycle which happens every five years while for quite sometimes, the Civic and Voter education was fused together, in recent regulatory framework they have been well separated due existence of two different regulatory authorities which will be discussed in the next chapter.
As said in the introduction of this article, Civics is taught at Primary Level and lower classes of Secondary education (Primary school up to Form four), General Studies administered at Higher levels of Secondary education (Form Five and Form Six), Development Studies are taught at the University level as a compulsory subject.
This goes without saying that Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the Institute of Adult Education are responsible and have been doing a lot in delivery of Civic education under a varied set of themes depending on their mandate. The matter of fact is that most of these organizations have their own target groups, while the institute of Adult education targets all adults especially those who missed the formal education, CSOs have been reaching out to Children, Youth, Women, pastoralists, People with Disabilities, Farmers, Fishing communities, the elderly and elected representatives. These institutions with rich styles of delivery methodologies do ‘tailor made’ their Civic education topics to include the core Civic education components and their thematic backgrounds such as Human Rights, Gender, Governance, gender based violence (GBV), Electoral issues and processes, natural resources, alternative energies, environment just to mention a few. In simplifying their works and trying to avoid duplication of efforts, some of the CSOs have come together in the form of thematic and generic Consortiums, Coalitions and Networks from District/council level to National level while others went regional and global to affiliate at that level to Networks such as CENESA and the like.
4. Legal Environment
Citizen participation in the governance of Public affairs is well guaranteed under the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania and the Constitution of Zanzibar respectively. Article 5 (1), article 8 (1)(d) and article 21 (1) which clearly states that ‘‘Subject to the provisions of Article 39, 47 and 67 of this Constitution and of the laws of the land in connection with the conditions for electing and being elected or for appointing and being appointed to take part in matters related to governance of the country, every citizen of the United Republic is entitled to take part in matters pertaining to the governance of the country, either directly or through representatives freely elected by the people, in conformity with the procedures laid down by, or in accordance with, the law. The same article under (2) provide that ‘‘Every citizen has the right and the freedom to participate fully in the process leading to the decision on matters affecting him, his well-being or the nation.
All these Constitutional provisions in Tanzania speak of rights, obligations and powers of citizens. Additionally, article 9, 10 and 21 (1) of the Constitution of Zanzibar echoes the United Republic of Tanzania (URT) constitution on same. The Zanzibar Constitution go further by providing that all authority in Tanzania lies in the citizenry and that citizens shall dully participate in public affairs, including decision making in arriving to issues of national interest.
As said under this article that Citizens Participation can only be possible if they are provided and exposed to series of learning and experiences in Civic education. Several laws and regulations have been prepared to guide and regulate delivery of Civic education.
The Two Constitutions (URT and Zanzibar) and other pieces of legislation especially the Political Parties Act, Chapter 258
It is however important to learn that the freedom given under Article 21 of the URT Constitution, is limited and somehow taken away by the Political Parties act which directs Civic Education providers to seek permission from the Registrar of Political Parties no matter how far are the offices from the applicant.
5. Stakeholders
In order to do a cross dissection of myriad of Civic Education stakeholders in Tanzania, one has to refer to formality and informality of Civic education provision in Tanzania as well as how this kind of education is promoted and regulated across the Country.
All school going Children at Primary and Secondary education level to receive some basic content in Civic Education through a famous subject called Civics. The Institute of Curriculum Development, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in Collaboration with the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) and the Commission for Universities are responsible for Planning, Delivery and Evaluating the pupils/students respectively. The President’s Office - Regional Administration and Local Governments (PO-RALG) who are the host of almost every learning Institution countrywide are also a key stakeholder and player as they are responsible with organizing teams of quality assurers and related monitoring aspects. This forms part of the regulators and providers in the formal education system.
On the informal provision of civic education, the main players are Civil Society organizations which includes NGOs, Trade Unions and Faith based organizations who are mainly supported and sponsored by International Organizations, UN Agencies and other Development Partners/Donors. It is interesting and something to note that all the above-mentioned actors and stakeholders work through media; both mainstream and social media. While the CSOs can organize the content, get it approved by the relevant authorities - the Registrar of Political Parties, National Election Commission (NEC) and the Zanzibar Election Commission -, the media get it highly disseminated through Televisions, National Radios and Community radios as well as the social medias of varied networks.
Other important stakeholders include the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance and the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).
6. Challenges
Civic Education which enlightens citizens of their rights, obligations and how things work in public governance has been encountering several challenges from how it is perceived and feared to how it can be financed.
One would quickly run to mention the inadequate funding of which I would mention last but carry my first challenge to be over-regulation and fears of unknown when citizens become aware and active! Some people in power cycles have an image problem against Civic Education thinking that it is an organized move to enlighten citizens to demand their rights at times when authorities are not ready to provide or so to say they may demand prematurely. That is why you find what has been given as a right constitutionally is technically withdrawn by law or a certain regulation or guideline.
Most of Civic education materials are not Disability friendly and most of media institutions lack sign language interpreters while very few documents are in braille and large fonts fit for people with vision impairment.
In connection with funding, the Civic education funders do happen on electoral year making it difficult to reach a wider population. The funding itself is not certain due to donor shifts and releasing little amount for effective provision of Civic education.
7. Conclusion
By and large, Civic Education has greatly evolved since Tanzania’s independence in 1961. Today, there are two strands to Civic and political education in the country. It would be paramount to be able to fully legislate both Civic and voter’s education so that the two are entrenched in the legal framework.
A well informed and active Citizenry guarantees the quality of policies, laws and budgets for development plans and programs. It requires a reasonable amount of voices in many ways to legitimate any public pronouncements, all of which require civic competence of the citizenry bed rocked on well-organized formal and informal civic education.
It is therefore important and a matter of urgency for Regional, International, National as well as Community organizations to enhance civic awareness among citizens, particularly the youths to make sure they are competent enough to be active citizens and influence development programs, Policies and processes.