Social Development and Social Services

Social development and social services

1. Social development is the improvement of the welfare of the people in the community.
2. It deals with the development in social, cultural and political aspects of the society.
3. Social development is the process of:
   • Improving people's living standards
   • Reducing poverty and unemployment
   • Enabling people to invest in profitable ventures
   • Widening trading opportunities
   • Reducing inequalities among the people

Social services

1. Are those services which are in a form of consumption.
2. They include:
   • Education
   • Housing
   • Insurance
   • Health
   • Pension schemes
   • Cultural affairs
   • Sports, games and entertainment
3. From these services, people get satisfaction.
4. The government through its agencies and the private sectors provides these services as well.

Different social services provided in Tanzania

Education sector

1. The United Republic of Tanzania realizes that quality education is the pillar of national development.
2. Through education, the nation obtains skilled manpower to serve in various sectors of the national economy.
3. Quality education enables Tanzania to:
   • Create a strong and competitive economy
   • Cope effectively with the challenges of development
   • Adapt confidently to changing market and technological conditions in the region and the global economy

The current education system

1. The overriding goal of the United Republic of Tanzania is eradicating poverty under the framework of:
   • Tanzania Development Vision 2025
   • Poverty Reduction Strategy 2015
2. Both identify education as a priority.
3. The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) recognized the need to develop:
   • Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP), 2002–2006
   • Adult and Non-formal Education Strategy and Implementation Plan (ANEIP), 2003/04–2007/08
4. Both PEDP and ANEIP were developed within the context of:
   • Education and Training Policy (1995)
   • Education Sector Development Program (ESDP 2000)
5. PEDP aimed at providing Universal Primary Education (UPE).
6. It was expected that all school-age children (7 to 13 years old) would enroll.

The key components of PEDP are

1. Enrollment expansion
2. Quality improvement
3. Capacity building
4. Institutional arrangements
5. Finance and resource allocation

Problems facing the government in the provision of education services

1. Poor resource allocation to the sector. The education sector has inadequate laboratories, libraries and their equipment, textbooks and reference books for students and teachers.
2. Lack of qualified teachers.
3. The number of teachers is less compared to the number of students enrolled into Tanzanian schools.
4. Low salaries to the teaching profession, which forces many people to leave the profession.
5. Unavailability of electricity in remote areas, which discourages teachers to go to the villages once employed. As a result, they decide to find employment in private schools.
6. Lack of important school infrastructures like classes, desks, offices, toilets and teacher's houses.
7. Transport problems for both students and teachers from their homes to schools, making them waste a lot of valuable time while on transit.
8. Lack of in-service training for the teachers.

Possible measures or solutions to the challenges facing the education sector in Tanzania

Health sector

1. For a period of almost fifty years, health services delivery has been largely done by the government, with a limited number of private health institutions especially in large towns or cities of the country.
2. After independence, health care facilities were redirected towards rural areas and free medical health services were introduced except for Grades I and II.
3. In 1977, private health services for profit were banned under the Private Hospitals Regulation Act, 1977.
4. This act had negative implications on health services in the country.
5. However, after a series of major economic and social changes, the government adopted a different approach to the role of the private sector.
6. New laws were developed that favored the private sector.

The national health policy

1. The National Health Policy was introduced in the early 1970s in the wake of the Arusha Declaration 1967.
2. The broad objective of the National Health Policy was to provide comprehensive basic health services equitably to the whole population.
3. Strong emphasis was put on promotion of health and prevention of diseases rather than curative services.
4. It also called for a shift from building large hospitals to smaller health centers throughout the country.
5. The government of Tanzania has clear policies on the implementation of health services to its people.
6. Under these policies, currently the citizens are required to share the costs of the services provided in those hospitals.

The specific objectives of the health services in Tanzania are

1. To reduce diseases and death to raise the life expectancy of Tanzanians. The government gives more attention to special groups like children under five years, cold people.
2. To make sure that primary health care services are available and are offered efficiently to the people.
3. To prevent and control communicable and non-communicable diseases such as HIV and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, diseases caused by malnutrition, environmental health, and working places as well as chemical control.
4. To enlighten the citizens about the preventable diseases in order to know them and find techniques of controlling them.
5. To create cooperation among the public sector, the private sector, religious organizations and non-governmental organizations that provide health services.
6. To provide education and increase the number of professional health workers.
7. To identify, rehabilitate the infrastructure according to the needs of the disabled, and lay down rehabilitation systems.
8. To evaluate health policies, laws and standards of giving health services.