This paper assesses educational planning in Tanzania as moving from one of hope to despair as the country becomes more reliant upon foreign aid. As the country moved from colonialism, basic education was to be accessible to all children and adult illiteracy was to be eliminated. By the 1980s financial crisis and the conditions that accompanied foreign assistance had shifted priorities for education so that it was no longer a major long-term goal for the country. This study examines those initiatives and responses in the sagging economic conditions. Although nearly all young Tanzanians were enrolled in primary schools, serious shortages were found in the numbers of textbooks, training of teachers, maintenance of the physical plant, equipment for classroom use and overall educational quality. Analyses of the basic economic plans and foreign investment policies that have governed the country for the last two decades are included. The study contends that planning in the present must pay as much attention to the conception as to the implementation in recreating the schools upon which economic development hopes lie. (EH)