Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on November 27, 2025
Education Minister Seeks Field Insights on Updated School Syllabi
Dodoma. The government has urged teachers across the country to provide detailed feedback on the rollout of the newly introduced school curricula, emphasizing that their insights are crucial for improving the quality of education.
Speaking in Dodoma while closing the annual meeting of the Tanzania Mainland Primary School Head Teachers Association (TAPSHA), Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Adolf Mkenda, said teachers play an irreplaceable role in assessing how the new curricula perform in real classroom settings.
Prof. Mkenda encouraged teachers to openly share the challenges and successes they encounter as they implement the revised syllabi, noting that such input will guide further improvements.
“I ask teachers to tell us what they are seeing as they implement the new curricula. We want to hear from you, what more should be done to ensure the reforms are effective?” he said.
The minister highlighted that past shortcomings in communication skills among learners revealed deeper weaknesses in the education system. He stressed that the current reforms were developed by experts in collaboration with teachers, making field-based feedback essential.
Prof. Mkenda reminded educators that curriculum development is an ongoing process and that teachers’ experiences are key to strengthening areas that require refinement.
He also elaborated on structural adjustments introduced under the revised Education and Training Policy (2014, revised 2023), launched by President Samia Suluhu Hassan in February 2025. Beginning in 2027, the primary education cycle will run for six years. However, due to the phased rollout of the new curriculum, two groups of pupils will complete primary education in 2027; those taught under the old curriculum finishing in Standard Seven, and those who began under the new curriculum completing primary school in Standard Six.
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Op-ED; Tanzania: Assessing and Mitigating Political Risks for Businesses Post–October 29
In spite of years of experience in handling business operations in Tanzania, both Barrick Mining Corporation and its then-local subsidiary, Acacia Mining, struggled to detect and mitigate political risks in the period that preceded contentious extractive sector reform in 2017. The outcome? Protracted dispute, cost erosion and costly settlement. The political developments that ended up trapping Acacia Mining had taken place almost a decade earlier.
In 2008, a fracture took place in the ruling party’s dominant coalition and fundamentally changed the nature of its politics. This factional split, particularly the failure to repair it, had two main outcomes. Firstly, it weakened the dominant coalition’s ability to influence leadership succession, and secondly, it enabled the rise of a mercurial figure that would eventually upend the business environment.
The legacy of that contentious period continues to haunt the government and investors in the form of arbitration, costly settlements, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenses. Keen observers might have understood why the 2024 road safety campaign stickers carried the name of a mining firm that had until recently been a subject of vilification.
A question that one could ask is, why do global firms, some with decades of operations in Africa, repeatedly struggle to discern and mitigate political risk? (As you read this piece, Barrick Mining has just announced a settlement to resolve a protracted dispute in Mali where staff were detained and operations disrupted for many months.)
Part of the answer lies in the ecosystem that helps international firms design and deploy projects. Major business funders often require supported businesses to procure insurance coverage from large and mostly Western entities. This is partly because of concerns about the capacity and reliability of local service providers. It follows that businesses choose to also procure risk monitoring services from similar or related firms.
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Op-Ed; An Island of Peace? Tanzania’s Unacknowledged Legacy of Violence
It is not exactly true that Tanzania has always been a haven of peace. Although Tanganyika won its independence through peaceful means, the revolution in Zanzibar and the later assassination of its first President show that, on that side of the union, it was not always peaceful.
This is without forgetting the appalling loss of life after the 2000 election, which President Benjamin William Mkapa recognised as a scar on his Presidency despite immediate denials at the time.
After independence, Tanzania’s peace was also under threat and indeed breached because of its principled stand on the liberation of Southern Africa. This was particularly true, of course, regarding our southern neighbour, Mozambique, which led to Portuguese incursions into our country.
In addition, Tanzania may have been peaceful, but it strongly supported armed struggle against colonialism and apartheid in its support for freedom and justice in southern Africa. It has always been recognised that, without justice, any peace is imposed and illusory.
The same applies to Tanzania’s decision, not only to expel Idi Amin’s army from our territory, but, far more so, to expel the dictator from Uganda. We can argue about how successful that has been subsequently, but the intention was clear.
Outbursts of local violence
Even within Tanzania, there have been outbursts of violence, particularly when some part of the population feels that their rights and security have been violated.
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