Community Rooted Education (CoRE) in Tanzania

The Community Rooted Education (CoRE) Program is an initiative led by the Montessori Community of Tanzania (MCT) to strengthen the quality of public pre-primary education and foundational learning in Tanzania. The program responds to a critical challenge in many public schools: overcrowded classrooms, limited learning materials, insufficient teacher support, and children entering primary school without strong foundations in early literacy, numeracy, social-emotional development, independence, and confidence.

Through CoRE, MCT supports public pre-primary teachers with practical, child-centered training rooted in Montessori principles, play-based learning, and locally relevant teaching approaches. The program helps teachers shift from teacher-directed instruction to active learning environments where children can explore, choose, move, communicate, collaborate, and learn through meaningful activities. Teachers are trained to organize classrooms into simple learning areas, use locally available materials, manage large classes through small-group work, observe children’s progress, and support early language, mathematics, motor skills, social skills, and self-discipline.

A key strength of CoRE is its community-rooted approach. The program works closely with government authorities, school leadership, parents, community members, and trained facilitators to ensure that learning improvement is not treated as a short-term intervention, but as a sustainable practice embedded in the school community. Parents and local communities are encouraged to contribute to classroom improvement, learning materials preparation, attendance support, and children’s overall wellbeing.

MCT has contributed to the design and implementation of CoRE through teacher training, mentorship, field follow-up, classroom observation, learning environment improvement, stakeholder coordination, and documentation of impact. To date, the initiative has supported 356 teachers, reached 291 public pre& primary schools, and benefited approximately 21,000 children across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. Earlier implementation phases have demonstrated strong results, including improved classroom organization, increased use of locally made learning materials, better child participation, and stronger teacher confidence in managing large pre-primary classes.

The initiative is strengthened by MCT’s formal collaboration with key government institutions. MCT has established Memoranda of Understanding with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training Zanzibar (MoEVT), and the President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG). These partnerships support alignment with national education priorities and create a pathway for scaling CoRE within public pre & primary schools. Through these collaborations, MCT works with government partners to support teacher development, curriculum improvement, learning environment enhancement, and the integration of child-centered and play-based approaches in early childhood education across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

CoRE has demonstrated that when teachers are equipped with practical skills, mentorship, and community support, even resource-constrained classrooms can become spaces where children learn with joy, confidence, and purpose. The initiative contributes directly to foundational learning by strengthening children’s early literacy, numeracy, social-emotional skills, independence, communication, problem-solving, and readiness for lifelong learning.

The long-term vision of CoRE is to contribute to systemic change in early childhood education by strengthening teacher capacity, improving classroom practice, supporting foundational learning, and demonstrating scalable models that can be adopted across Tanzania’s public education system.