Towards a Well-Educated Society in Tanzania: Exploring SocioEconomic Development at the Household Level

This paper examines the status of household development influenced by education in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The study was conducted in the West District. A cross-sectional research design was used with a qualitative and quantitative approach. A sample of 120 was selected by simple random sampling procedures after treatment of area sampling by multistage sampling. Data collection methods involved a questionnaire survey, unstructured interviews, and a documentary review. Quantitatively collected data were analysed by descriptive statistics employing a statistical package for the social sciences to describe the variables of interest extensively. Qualitative data were analysed by theme and content analysis to capture the breadth of the topic. It was found that education had helped households to acquire food requirements, health services, and assets, and promoted livelihood due to income earnings. The participants were engaged in different employment activities, with the majority engaged in agricultural and small business activities. The study also revealed that parents' level of responsibility for educating children at the household level was high. The paper concludes that there was a high level of household education achievements, indicating purposive investments and adoption by local and national development actors in promoting access to and outcomes of education enjoyed by households and community members. It was recommended that more efforts be made to enhance employment opportunities among youth through skillful and innovative educational skills at the basic level of education, namely primary and secondary education levels, that will promote self-employment to the youth who are the majority workforce in Tanzania. These could include investment in contextual and relevant skills of the agrarian, small business, blue economy, tourism, and rural economic activities of Tanzania.