Is the Teacher Continuous Professional Development reform in Tanzania tuned to deliver? Reflection from Systems Perspective

Tanzania is in the process of rolling out the National Teacher Continuous Professional Development (NF-CPD) reform. Among other things the reform draws considerable attention on compulsory on-going school-based community of learning. This study examines whether the reform is tuned to deliver. Specifically, the study responds to the question: Are the essential system elements that can support effective implementation of teacher continuous professional development reform in place? Building on Lant Pritchett (2015) description of accountability framework, the study addresses two specific objectives:

(1) Identify the available system elements to assist NF-CPD achieve its expected outcome

(2) Exploring the coherence existing in the accountability relationship within and across system elements.

The paper presents findings from a desk review of reform-related documents. The findings reveal that the reform is in alignment with policy and legal frameworks. The framework states the expected goals and line of communication between factors. Conclusively, it can be concluded that the system elements in place if executed as planned can lead to effective implementation of the reform. What remains is to define clear teaching and learning key performance indicators, track progress against indicators, ensure adequate financing, and all actors including teachers within the system are motivated to support the implementation of the NF-TCPD. Unless all accountability relationships elements are strengthened, it is hard to believe that the NF–TCPD is tuned to deliver. Instead, it is tempting to characterize the introduction of NF-TCPD as a bit of isomorphic mimic of previous TCPD initiatives.