his education sector analysis (ESA) for mainland Tanzania is a detailed analytical document that offers a comprehensive picture of mainland Tanzania’s education sector. This ESA is part of an on-going series of education country-specific reports being prepared by government teams, technically supported by UNESCO, the World Bank and other development partners. The main purpose of an ESA (also known asa Country Status Report, or CSR) is to provide an evidence-based diagnosis of an education sector to enable decision-makers to orient national policies. It also provides relevant analytical information to nourish the dialogue between the government and education sector stakeholders, including development partners. In the current development context, marked by the necessity for countries to develop sound, sustainable and credible strategies and plans in which education is embedded, ESAs represent a valuable and essential tool. This is the second ESA for Tanzania; the first one having been conducted in 2001.Although its main objective is to provide a comprehensive picture of the education system in 2009 (the last year for which statistics were available), it also provides some analysis of the evolution of the system over the decade, when feasible and relevant. This second report is also more than an update. It provides more in-depth analysis on certain aspects of the system: detailed unit costs by subsector, external efficiency, quality and out-of-school, and technical education and vocational training and higher education in particular. It provides key monitoring and evaluation inputs on the education sector as a whole, that are particularly valuable in the framework of the implementation of the Education Sector Development Programme.
