Technical Skills Gap Analysis and Recommendations for Blended Learning in Teacher Development Programs in Tanzania

Overview & Synopsis

This paper shares the major findings from two technical capacity gap analyses undertaken in 2024 on TIE and IAE of Mainland Tanzania, under the leadership of the World Bank with financial support from the Mastercard Foundation. Special focus was placed on the application of blended learning in the development and delivery of teacher development programs for evidence-based capacity development and systems strengthening. The focus on TIE and is justified by their roles in advancing in-service secondary teacher education with support from the World Bank financed Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQUIP) – P170480. In specific terms, there was need to apply SEQUIP support to TIE more strategically in the advancement of secondary teacher development systems to levels like what had been done for primary education with respect to blended learning. For the IAE, its leadership in the development, implementation and scaling up of the accelerated Alternative Education Pathway (AEP) program for secondary learners necessitated opening of new AEP centers across the country including recruitment of AEP program coordinators and teachers, in addition to establishment of modalities for regular and faster training of teachers to implement the accelerated AEP program. The study analyzed policy, staffing, logistical and technical skills gaps, and also provides lessons learned from other systems that Tanzania and other peers could learn from.