Enhancing Teachers' Continuous Professional Development in Tanzania: Challenges, Strategic Interventions, and Regional Comparisons

Abstract

Teachers' Continuous Professional Development (CPD) plays a vital role in elevating teaching standards, boosting student achievement, and advancing the education sector as a whole. The frequently change of teaching methods, curricula, and learners’ needs necessitate the continual transformation of teachers, CPD provides teachers with opportunities to enhance their skills, update their knowledge, and adopt innovative practices and bring them up to speed. Research into CPD is crucial as it helps to identify teachers’ needs, effectiveness of the CPD programs in a process to improve teaching quality, foster student success, and contribute to the sustainable development of the education sector. While Tanzania acknowledges the significance of CPD, its execution encounters major obstacles that impede teacher development. Key issues include low teacher awareness, cultural reluctance toward modern teaching approaches, insufficient financial resources, and weak institutional backing from school leaders. Additionally, existing CPD initiatives are often inconsistent, poorly organized, and unable to address the varied needs of educators, especially those in remote regions. This review offers an in-depth exploration of the primary barriers undermining effective CPD implementation in Tanzania. It analyzes how insufficient funding, resistance to change, and the absence of a strong policy framework contribute to these systemic challenges. To address these issues, the study suggests actionable solutions, such as greater government funding for CPD, incorporating professional development into teacher career progression, conducting targeted awareness campaigns on the value of CPD, and enhancing leadership support in schools. The study also compares Tanzania’s CPD efforts with those of other East and Sub-Saharan African nations. Further it analyzed best practices from the selected countries in the Global North and provide insights for the improvement of Tanzanian CPD practices. The paper underscores the necessity of a comprehensive strategy for CPD in Tanzania, emphasizing policy improvements, government commitment, and community involvement to cultivate a sustainable culture of professional growth among teachers.

Keywords: Continuous Professional Development CPD, teacher professional development, educational quality, teacher career progression, education policy.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/16-7-06

Publication date: July 30^th 2025