skills to deal with certain topics in the revised primary school curricula. These factors have negatively impacted on educational quality. While inadequately trained teachers make poor and boring subject matter presentations, the high teacher-pupil ratios suggest overcrowded classrooms making it very difficult for teachers to pay enough attention to students. cxxix. The challenge for the URT Government in addressing problems concerning the quality of education is to place stronger policy emphasis on equity issues by allocating more resources to underserved areas, supporting students from poor families, and maintaining higher retention rates for girls in the educational system. Also, although steps have already been taken for teacher training, still more efforts are needed to enhance teaching skills. 5. BEST PRACTICES cxxx. Highlighted below are the best practices identified by the APR Panel for peer sharing and peer learning. 5.1 Democracy and Political Governance The Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar cxxxi. The URT is unique for being the only surviving pan-Africanist project involving the union of two independent African countries, through the adoption of a federal or quasi-federal constitution, with shared sovereignty between the countries of the Union. Given the historical and inherited major diversities within each of the parties, the Union, therefore, offers useful lessons to countries seeking to join together, especially in terms of how to sustain diversity in unity. Political Stability and Peaceful Transfer of Political Power cxxxii. The United Republic of Tanzania is a peaceful and stable country that successfully built a strong national unity and significantly reduced the impact of ethnic or regional divisions. The use of Kiswahili as a national language largely contributed to this unity, which is Nyerere’s legacy. Following the re-introduction of plural politics in 1985, Tanzania successfully held four presidential and parliamentary elections. Tanzania’s Constitution provides for two presidential term limits of five years each. So far, at the end of each tenure, Presidents have left office without attempting to extend their term limits, as happens in some African countries. This practice has served to consolidate and deepen the democratisation process in the country. However, it is important to note that the peaceful transfer of power in Tanzania has taken place within the ruling party. The challenge will come when handing over power from one political party to another. Political Reconciliation in Zanzibar cxxxiii. Power-sharing arrangements entrenched in a Government of National Unity (GNU) were an innovative approach to bring the long standing political conflict in Zanzibar to an end. Under the new constitutional arrangement (Constitution of 2010), the party that wins the presidency in Zanzibar is required to form a government in collaboration with the party or parties represented in the House of Representatives. The party that takes the second position in the election gets the post of First Vice President and ministerial portfolios are distributed in proportion to the share of seats in the House of Representatives. This arrangement significantly reduces the political stakes involved in elections in a situation where electoral political competition was a zero-sum-game and a matter of life and death among the two main contending political forces on the islands. URT Declaration on Jurisdiction of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights 18