*2.2.3.1 Lack of robust teacher professional development policy and strategic plans*

Tanzania does not have a stand-alone national policy for teacher professional development as it is the case with information and communication technology in education. Instead, the teacher professional development policy statements are incorporated in the national education policy [26]. However, the policy does not explicitly articulate ways for implementing successful teacher professional development. It would, thus, seem that a poorly organized policy cannot guarantee quality teacher professional development programmes.

Tanzania Education and Training Policy of 1995 stipulates that professional development shall be compulsory to all teachers [26]. However, strategic plans do not support the achievement of this objective. Despite the introduction of Education Sector Development Programme in 1997, teacher professional development has continued to be episodic across Tanzania. Ref. [9] reported that "the focus of in-service education has reached only a small section of teachers, leaving many teachers staying up to 10 years without any further training" (p. 26). Likewise, the Teacher Education Development and Management Strategies of 2007 and 2013 developed some actions that have not significantly impacted teacher professional development [9, 27]. Thus, strategic plans for guiding stakeholders in establishing and implementing meaningful teacher professional development are missing. For instance, recommended strategies in the aforementioned policy document do not objectively indicate how teacher-driven professional development can be conducted at the school level. Moreover, the policy does not clearly state who is responsible for teacher professional development implementation between teachers, school leaders, nongovernment organizations, and institutions [28]; thus accountability for poor performance in professional development is compromised.

Failure of schools to translate centralized teacher professional developing policy into teachers' working environment has also hindered its implementation. Therefore, schools need support in order to put the policy in contexts. A good example can be drawn from Hong Kong where the government uses a "soft" approach that allows schools to decide on policies about their own professional development strategies and allows teachers to have professional autonomy [29].

### *2.2.3.2 Difficulties in teacher professional development timetabling*

It is difficult to facilitate teacher professional development in the situation where policies and plans are silent on timetabling issues. Teachers and school leaders need guidance on how to integrate professional development programmes in their busy teaching schedules. Even so, demanding teacher workloads may have prevented teachers from attending training programmes within or outside school premises. Considering the timetabling challenge, other countries, such as Malaysia, Canada, China, Belgium, Japan, Australia, and Singapore, have scheduled specific time for teacher professional development [30–32]. This is different from Tanzania where teachers are not offered special time for professional development. Nevertheless, in the presence of proper management plans, teachers can devote time for professional development after class hours or during break time [33–35].

#### *2.2.3.3 Insufficient budget for teacher professional development*

Tanzania cannot establish quality teacher professional development without well-designed means for accessing resources. Professional development programmes are essentially expensive as they require adequate funding [36, 37]. A plethora of literature has underscored the shortage of financial support due to limited budget for teacher professional development in Tanzania [20, 38–40]. The challenge is not only with the overall funding but also effective use of limited available resources to enable teachers engage in professional development. Local and international studies, however, have shown that teachers can engage in continual professional development with a few available resources [8, 41]. Sufficient resources for professional development can only be possible if professional development plans are effectively organized.

#### *2.2.3.4 Lack of harmonized scheme for teacher professional development provision*

Tanzanian government, through its educational institutions and private organizations, is responsible for organizing teacher professional development. However, there is no harmonized scheme that would control stakeholders in the provision of teacher professional development programmes. As stated earlier in this chapter, different providers have goals which may not align with national curriculum or teachers' specific needs. As [16] highlighted, most of donors' training programmes are not responsive to teachers' professional learning needs. Likewise, the popular professional development programmes in Tanzania are donor-driven, and teachers have been regarded as recipients of training packages [30, 42]. To address this challenge, it is high time the government develop a framework for harmonizing all teacher professional development activities in the country.

#### *2.2.3.5 Inadequate preparation of pre-service teachers for professional development*

Ineffective teacher professional development in Tanzanian schools is partly attributed to failure of initial teacher education to adequately prepare studentteachers to take their professional development roles. Student-teachers are not trained how to practically plan their professional development, establish learning programmes at school, seek learning opportunities, execute learning activities, as well as evaluate the impact of their learning on their students' learning. This is so because initial teacher education does not provide adequate time to studentteachers to engage with teaching practice [43, 44]. The initial training education programmes are too demanding as there is much content to be covered within a

limited time [21]. Upon completion of the initial teacher education, teachers find that they have not learnt much regarding professional development matters.
