Teachers’ attitudes towards sexuality education are among the important predictors of their willingness to teach sexuality education programmes in schools. While there is a plethora of studies on teachers’ attitudes towards sexuality in developed countries, there is a paucity of such studies in sub-Saharan Africa in general and Tanzania in particular. This study examined teachers’ attitudes towards and comfort in teaching sexuality education in rural and urban Tanzania. The results show that an overwhelming majority of teachers in both rural and urban districts supported the teaching of sexuality education in schools, and the inclusion of a wide range of sexuality education topics in the curriculum. Nevertheless, though teachers expressed commitment to teaching sexuality education in schools, they expressed difficult and discomfort in teaching most of the key sexuality education topics. This implies that declaration of positive attitudes towards teaching sexuality education alone is not enough; there is a need for facilitating teachers with knowledge, skills and confidence to teach various sexuality education topics.

Work stress has been identified as a common phenomenon in the teaching profession. However, little research has been done to examine the prevalence of and factors associated with work stress among employees in university context in Tanzania and sub-Saharan African countries in general. Using survey design within the quantitative approach, this study investigated the prevalence of and factors causing work stress among academic staff in public and private universities. The results show that a significant proportion of academic staff reported experiencing high stress, with respondents in public universities reporting being more stressed than their counterparts in private universities. Three factors have been identified as particularly associated with work stress among academic staff. These are lack of staff involvement in institutional reform processes, lack of necessary support systems related to their work and high workload levels. Highly qualified and experienced staff reported lower levels of stress than staff with low qualifications and less experienced. These results indicate that work stress is a common phenomenon among institutions of higher education with its associated consequences such low job satisfaction, which is likely to affect staff’s productivity.

This qualitative study examined teachers' commitment to, and experiences of, the teaching profession in six regions of Tanzania. The study used focus group discussions as research method and data collection tool. Twenty four groups were conducted, with group membership ranging from five to nine participants. The results show that the teachers' commitment to the teaching profession is devastatingly low, with the majority of teachers expressing that they did not choose the teaching profession as their choice, but were compelled by the easiness to get the job and lack of qualifications to join other professions of their liking and choice. Teachers highlighted poor working environment and poor government and community attitudes towards the teaching profession as the main de-motivating factors for the teaching profession. In order to raise teachers' commitment to the teaching profession, which is an important contributor to the students' academic achievement; it is recommended that the Government of Tanzania and other stakeholders should improve the teachers working conditions, including provision of housing facilities and social welfare services.

The IM protocol facilitated the development of a comprehensive sexuality and HIV/AIDS education programme relevant and appropriate to the social cultural context and the needs of learners in Tanzania. The paper has demonstrated that, although the IM was developed in the Western context, it can be used in a flexible manner to adapt to local contexts such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa.

There is a paucity of studies that have systematically and comprehensively investigated the knowledge level, attitudes and the pattern of sexual behaviours related to HIV and AIDS in higher education settings in sub-Saharan Africa in general and Tanzania in particular. This study attempted to fill a void in knowledge. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used, employing a self-administered questionnaire as the main data collection tool. More than 400 higher education students completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to HIV and AIDS. About three quarters of respondents demonstrated comprehensive knowledge about HIV and AIDS, and the majority of respondents expressed positive attitudes towards people living with HIV and AIDS. Despite demonstrating high knowledge level about HIV and AIDS, the results show that sexual behaviours among students in higher education are characteristically risky, and do not significantly differ from youth in the general population.