Gender and Disability : Challenges of Education Sector Development in Tanzania

Abstract

In line with the UN Millennium Development Goals, the government of Tanzania has set poverty reduction as the most important challenge for the future. Education is a key sector in the long-term process of poverty reduction. Three of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) focus on gender. The Progress report (UN Secretariat, 2005), however, fairly strongly states that it is unlikely, that any of these three MDGs can be met, if women lack the education, influence and resources to care for their families, and to fully participate in the development process. In this paper, we analyse findings of previous research on gender and disability in the education sector development and explore ways to bring the socio-cultural perspectives into the sector development discussions.