Effects of Free Education on Enhancing Access to Primary Education in Tanzania: A Case of Newala District, Mtwara Region

Tanzania has attempted to increase access to education at various levels of education systems. Despite all these efforts there are a lot of challenges which need to be addressed to enhance progress in the education sector. This study is one amongst many with the objective of assessing the effects of free education on enhancing access to primary education in Tanzania. The study used logic model to explain the households’ decision to enroll their children into primary school under free education policy. The results revealed that free education policy has succeeded both in increasing enrolment and in reducing delays in entering to school because more pupils have been enrolled at the legal school entry age of 5-7 year or less. However, free education has not succeeded in reducing drop outs because after implementation of free education policy the surprising outcome is that the percentage of dropouts from school increased. The study further determined significance of the factors that were deemed important for sending children to school; where it was revealed that, distance from home to school had a negative influence on the decision of sending children to school. The odds in favour of enrolment increase when the household considers free education an important factor. For the sex of the household head odds ratio were in favour of male headed households. Though the government implemented free education policy, most of people are not satisfied with the policy, because it did not meet their expectations.