Education situation
In Zanzibar, one sees many children and young people on the streets who have never attended school. The parents often lack the money to even feed the family; regular school attendance is out of question. Adults and children are therefore often illiterate or only speak the official language Swahili, while English is of great importance for a professional perspective.
In addition, medical care on the island is meagre and the locals often cannot afford it, which is why many adults and children are in poor health - which makes school attendance even more difficult. Zanzibar's children and young people have hardly any prospects for the future. If their parents can afford it, they finish secondary school at most, but then find no further education opportunities in their home country, as state-run vocational schools do not exist. The only possibility for further vocational training is to leave the country for Tanzania, but only a tiny proportion of the population can afford this. In addition, the range and level of education in Tanzania are low to insufficient to find a job that would allow financial independence. The unemployment rate is correspondingly high, and if any work can be found at all, it is mostly poorly paid casual jobs: on average, a family in Zanzibar lives on one US dollar per day.
