The study was conceived during the spring of 2000 as a follow-up to the successful work that had been undertaken by one member of the team and which had resulted in the successful completion of an EdD thesis into the private costs of public primary education borne by households, in Tanzania, while sending children to public primary schools (Dachi 2000). Household costs were found to be complex and while the broad areas of fees, other mandatory and voluntary contributions are burdensome expenses on the household, they do not constitute the principal costs on the parental budget. Ancillary costs surrounding schooling, such as uniform, meals and transport, are variable according to district and environment, and constitute the largest burden on household finances. A major factor in the non-participation of children in schooling was found to be the need to prioritise educational investment in a few children, with the subsequent earnings of those not enrolled in school contributing to the household finances. But even for those children enrolled in school, their frequent failure to complete primary education was due to an inability of the children successfully to combine income generation, partly to finance their education, with that of school attendance. The present study was, therefore, conceived of as an attempt to provide a more detailed, although preliminary, investigation into the effects of working and its impact on children’s participation in formal education.