Building the Architecture for Lasting Change
TeachUNITED Partners with the Mastercard Foundation in Tanzania
Systemic change in education is not a product of chance. It occurs when teachers, schools, and national policy are deliberately and thoughtfully connected.
That belief is at the center of a new five-year partnership between TeachUNITED and the Mastercard Foundation, launched under the Leaders in Teaching (LIT) initiative, which aims to transform secondary education in rural Tanzania.
The Problem
High-poverty rural schools in Tanzania have a chronic shortage of supported educators. Many teachers in these communities are working with little training, few resources, and no clear path to get better at the job. Students feel that gap every day, in classrooms where a teacher wants to do more but doesn’t have the tools to do it.
Our Solution
We’re building a cascading model designed to outlast the program itself.
The model begins with direct support: 750 early-career teachers and 150 Master Teachers will receive research-based coaching and tools they can use right away. From there, we’re training the people who train teachers, 110 government staff and 36 local NGO trainers, so they can lead the model on their own. To make sure the impact endures, we’re embedding these strategies into MEWAKA, Tanzania’s national teacher development framework, so the approach becomes a permanent part of the teacher training system.
The Impact
By 2030, this work is expected to reach approximately 311,000 students.
Programs that disappear when the funding does rarely change much. That’s why this partnership trains government staff and local NGOs, not just teachers, and why we’re working to embed our approach into Tanzania’s own national framework rather than run alongside it. The goal is for the expertise to stay in the system long after TeachUNITED’s role in it ends.
We’re grateful to build this alongside the Mastercard Foundation. Learn more about their Leaders in Teaching initiative.