Nearly 6.000 students in Tanzania show how targeted support, trained teachers, and data can address learning delays.

Quasi 6.000 girls and boys, ten primary schools and a particularly difficult starting point: approximately 90 percent of the students analyzed presented at least one vulnerable condition, from poverty to orphanhood, from disability to difficulties in attending school. Dar es Salaamin Tanzania, a remedial program, however, saw improvements in learning in English, Kiswahili, mathematics and science.

The result emerges from the project "Equal Educational Opportunities: Educational Recovery Interventions in Tanzania", funded under the call Unibo Global South 2024 and curated by Joseph Pignataro, professor at the Department of Economic Sciences of theUniversity of BolognaThe study combined quantitative analysis and pedagogical intervention, focusing not only on academic achievement but also on the social and family conditions that can influence the very possibility of learning.

The Tanzanian experience thus addresses one of the less visible issues of access to education: being enrolled in school does not necessarily equate to having real conditions for learningA child can formally attend school and simultaneously fall behind due to poverty, absences, family fragility, disabilities, or unrecognized difficulties. The intervention piloted in Dar es Salaam sought to identify these factors before they become a permanent disadvantage.

Difficulties are measured before they become abandonment

The Alma Mater project was part of a wider initiative Pamoja Tudumishe Elimu, a Swahili expression that can be translated as "Together to strengthen education", created by the NGO WeWorld in collaboration with the Educate A Child Programme of Education Above All FoundationThe initiative operates in Kenya and Tanzania with the aim of keeping children classified as high or very high risk of dropping out in primary education.

The overall program, launched in July 2023 and scheduled for completion in June 2026, was built around a multidimensional problem. Risk factors considered include: poverty, disability, child labor, gender discrimination, violence, and low quality of educationInterventions include teacher training, psychosocial support, school supplies, infrastructure improvements, child protection mechanisms, and tools to identify and monitor students at risk of dropping out.

In the research component conducted by the University of Bologna, the group coordinated by Pignataro includes Faithful Greek, of the Department of Statistical Sciences, and Massimo Marcuccio, of the Department of Educational Sciences. The combination of economic, statistical, and pedagogical expertise has allowed us to combine classroom activities with a quantitative analysis of student outcomes and their evolution over time.

The experiment combined teacher training, teaching materials adapted to the local context and remedial classes, that is, remedial lessons aimed at students with greater difficulties. Therefore, a single, one-size-fits-all measure wasn't implemented: the operating principle was to identify those at risk of falling behind and focus additional support on these students.

“Vulnerability is not destiny: it is the point at which poverty, fragility and inequality risk becoming educational delay, but it is also the point at which a well-directed intervention can reopen possibilities,”

explained Giuseppe Pignataro.

The point is also relevant from the point of view of trainingVulnerability is treated as an observable condition to be addressed, not as an immutable student characteristic. This, however, requires the ability to identify, educational continuity, and sufficiently reliable information to decide where to focus resources, which, in the most vulnerable school systems, are necessarily limited.

The half-yearly surveys follow four key subjects

To check the students' progress, the researchers used half-yearly surveys in four subjects: English, Kiswahili, mathematics, and science. The analysis showed improvements in all subjects, with particularly significant results in mathematics, precisely the area in which the students involved presented the greatest initial difficulties.

This finding is significant because the sample did not represent a school population free of critical issues. Of the nearly 6.000 children studied, approximately nine out of ten were affected by at least one vulnerability. The analysis therefore observed the effects of interventions within schools where economic and social difficulties concretely interfere with the continuity of learning.

Gathering information in this context is itself part of the methodological challenge. School records, absences, calendars, class composition, and relationships with families must be reconstructed and verified without turning the research into an additional burden for teachers and administrators. Educational data, in fact, does not emerge in a laboratory: it depends on the ability to follow real students over time within institutions subject to organizational and social constraints.

In these contexts, even gathering data requires trust. It requires time, mediation, careful language, respect for school routines, and the ability to avoid turning research into an additional burden for those who work in schools every day.

he stressed again Pignataro.

This dimension also makes the project interesting as a case of research and development applied to educational systems. Innovation does not consist in a new digital platform or an isolated technological tool, but in the integration between data, school organization, pedagogical intervention and monitoringThe information collected serves to identify the most exposed students and to verify whether the support provided produces a measurable change.

Over two thousand students per year in the various remedial classes

Le remedial classes constitute one of the most concrete elements of the intervention. In 2024 they involved 2.233 students; in 2025 the participants were 2.165. A group of 1.531 students followed the activities in both years, allowing us to observe an important component of the model: the continuity of support.

The temporal dimension distinguishes structured remediation from occasional intervention. If difficulties arise from accumulated absences, family disadvantages, economic problems, or previous learning deficits, a single compensatory activity may not be sufficient. The presence of over 1.500 students in remedial classes for two consecutive years shows that prolonged accompaniment is organizationally feasible even in a school environment marked by widespread vulnerabilities.

The broader project within which the research is based follows the same logic. Pamoja Tudumishe Elimu not only targets grades, but combines educational activities with interventions on the conditions that can lead to dropout. Education Above All specifies among its planned actions the training of teachers and child protection workers, infrastructure improvements, support for students with disabilities or psychosocial distress, family involvement, and data management tools for identify and monitor children at risk.

In the marginalized urban areas of Tanzania the program is of particular interest to the municipalities of Kinondoni and Temeke, in Dar es Salaam. The local organization KIWOHEDE identifies thirteen primary schools involved in the Pamoja Tudumishe Elimu project in these two municipalities and a target of 5.000 students at high or very high risk. The University of Bologna research analyzed nearly 6.000 children in ten schools, thus integrating into a broader operational initiative without entirely coinciding with it.

This is an important distinction: the results observed by the university group relate to the scope of research conducted in the schools examined and do not automatically justify transferring the same effects to any education system. Social contexts, school quality, teacher availability, and remediation methods can influence the effectiveness of similar interventions. However, the Tanzanian case offers an empirical basis for observing what happens when educational risk is identified and addressed with targeted tools.

Teachers and data transform recovery into prevention

One of the most interesting findings concerns the role of teachers. Remedial activities have shown greater effectiveness when accompanied by training courses and methodologies capable of recognizing difficulties earlyFrom this perspective, the teacher does not intervene only after failure, but becomes part of an observation system that should intercept signals before the gap becomes difficult to bridge.

This is where the project transcends the traditional concept of remedial learning as an extraordinary measure for those who have already failed. The goal is to incorporate support into the school's ordinary operations, using periodic assessments and information on student outcomes to decide. who needs intervention, in what area and with what continuity.

“Gaps can be reduced when they are recognized early, when support is targeted, when teachers are supported, and when schools have useful data to understand where to intervene.”

said the professor of the Department of Economic Sciences of the University of Bologna..

The questionnaires administered to students add an element that alters the interpretation of poor performance. Many children involved state they want to continue studying, build a professional future, and learn in more inclusive environments. Academic difficulty, therefore, does not necessarily coincide with a lack of individual motivation. In the presence of poverty, disability, absences, or family fragility, there can be a considerable gap between the desire to learn and the material conditions that allow it.

The international program addresses this gap by working beyond the individual classroom. Pamoja Tudumishe Elimu includes family and community involvement, child protection mechanisms, psychosocial support, and improvements to school infrastructure. Education Above All has set an overall goal of 10.932 children at high or very high risk of abandonment.

The scale of the problem is larger than the results of a single experiment, but for this very reason the Dar es Salaam research indicates a possible operational criterion: to intervene not only on access to school, but also on the school's capacity to recognize differences in learning and react before they become exclusionTo do this, we need trained teachers, repeated assessments, usable data, and dedicated resources for students who are falling behind.

In the Tanzanian case, these elements were tested on thousands of children over several school years. The improvement observed in the four subjects, the participation of over two thousand students per year in remedial classes, and the permanence of 1.531 students in the remedial program for two consecutive years provide a concrete measure of what it means to transform school support from an episodic intervention to a continuous intervention. organized tool for preventing the educational gap.

Here are three insights that might interest you:

From Idea to Impact: The Silent Revolution of Burundian Youth
Starlink connects a remote school in Kyrgyzstan to the internet.
This is how the new generations are trained at the Cape Verde technology park