Tanzania single textbook plan stuns publishers

Tanzania is moving closer to re-introducing a single textbook-per-subject policy, a move that analysts say has significant ramifications for the country’s education system and business for the publishing industry in the region.

Prof Jumanne Maghembe, Tanzania’s Education and Vocational Training minister, told an educational conference that the government’s planned to implement the policy that it has been mulling over for a year now.

The government cites lack of coherence and confusion among students and teachers as the main reason for banning the multiple textbook system which it is blaming for the high failure rate in last year’s national examinations.

The policy announcement has been met with criticism from publishers and civil society organisations. Publishers Association of Tanzania said the policy is inconsistent with modern learning practices which appreciate a diversity of sources of knowledge.

Publishers in Tanzania, like their counterparts in Kenya and Uganda, depend largely on textbook sales as poverty and a culture of functional reading limits the region’s residents from picking more recreational and self-development titles.

If implemented, the policy will introduce a monopolistic structure at all levels of the textbook value chain. A single author will write one textbook for a specific subject. The book will be published by one firm and printed by yet another single entity.

Tanzania has about 16 publishers. The country also sources some educational books from Kenya, mainly readers (story books).

Mr James Ogola, the business development manager of Oxford East Africa Publishers, said the policy could shave off its business volumes in the Tanzanian market where it is doing well.

He said the quality of education in primary and secondary schools is likely to suffer if the policy is implemented.

“From a public interest assessment, the bigger impact will be on the quality of education as students will face a reduction in intellectual diversity,” he said, adding that if one book has errors, factual or otherwise, there will be no recourse.

Mr Fredrick Oyuga, the publishing manager at Jomo Kenyatta Foundation, said he had reservations about the proposal.

“It will kill creativity in the education system and kill competition in the publishing industry. This will set back the move towards free market economics.”

While the criticism mounts, other analysts say the government could be adopting the new policy out of budgetary pressures.

The single textbook system is seen as a quick fix to the funding challenges for the education sector as it will provide a focus on a few books whose supply the government may easily control.

According to Policy Forum, a network of NGOs in Tanzania, the national education budget is facing major deficits.