Topic: Reading and writing ability in relation to home environment condition: A study in primary education in Tanzania. Reading and writing are key skills in all areas of education and beyond, facilitating participation in the wider context of lifelong learning. Reading and writing ability is influenced by both individual and environmental factors. The focus in this study is on environmental factors, specifically on the home environment. The aim was to study how home conditions are related to the reading and writing ability of primary school children in a rural area in Tanzania. The study focuses on factors claimed to affect children’s school achievement, such as the standard of living and wealth material condition of the family, and the availability of educational materials at home. Data were collected using tests in reading and writing and a questionnaire. Kiswahili is the main language in Tanzania and the tests used are based on the Kiswahili syllabus in primary education. The reading task involved letter reading, word reading, and sentence reading; and the writing task involved word writing activity. The study was conducted in a rural area in Bagamoyo District, in the eastern part of Tanzania. The study was guided by thte following operational research questions: (i) Could Bagamoyo communities be categorized according to western socio-economic scales? (ii) Is there significant difference in mean scores from reading and writing tests, obtained under different living condition categories (iii) To what extent are children's scores in reading and writing related to family living condiciton, wealth possessions and educational materials? The first research question aimed at finding out whether scale and criteria used to categorize families into different socio-economic status levels in western communities are applicable for a poor rural community.It also sought to categorize the families into good and poor living conditions. The second question intended to find out the difference in performance in reading and writing between living condtions categories; and the question three aimed to find out the impact the factors had on children's ability in reading and writing. Specifically, it intended to find out which of the factors and to which direction, positively or negatively, influenced children's ability in reading and writing . Theoretical framework: Experimental design; questionnaire with an interview Achievement tests were conducted to 300 grade three children in ten primary schools in Bagamoyo District in Coast region in Tanzania. The tests were conducted in an empty room in the school. A number of 250 parents were involved in the study. The parents answered a semi-structured questionnaire. The researcher conducted an interview with the parents on the home environment conditions especially on wealth, possessions and availability of educational materials at home. Theoretical framework: Experimental design; questionnaire with an interview Achievement tests were conducted to 300 grade three children in ten primary schools in Bagamoyo District in Coast region in Tanzania. The tests were conducted in an empty room in the school. A number of 250 parents were involved in the study. The parents answered a semi-structured questionnaire. The researcher conducted an interview with the parents on the home environment conditions especially on wealth, possessions and availability of educational materials at home.

Achievement tests in reading and writing were conducted to the children. Reading tests included: letter reading; word reading; and sentence reading. The writing test included word writing. All the tests were performed in a single session beginning with the reading tests. The children were given snack and a drink to minimize short-term hunger. A set of 100 questions were administered to the parents. The questions were divided into three main sections: a section on wealth items such as car, domestic animals, land, house, radio, bicycle, etc; a section on living condition such as water source, light source, toilet, etc; and the kind of educational materials available in the home, for example, school uniform, textbooks, newspapers, religious books, exercise books, etc. Parents' information helped to categorize them into two levels of home condition, the high and low levels. Children's level of achievement was categorized according to the levels of high and low, as determined from questionnaire and interview information obtained from the parents

Preliminary results: (i) Children's level of achievement in reading and writing is significantly related to educational materials found in the home environment; (ii) Educational materials found in the home environment have positive impact on children's achievement in reading and writing (iii) Wealth and standard of living have no significant influence on children’s ability in reading and writing Conclusion: (i) Parents give more priority to education than to living and wealth conditions (ii) Children from poor families are not predestinated to bad results, and low achievements.