This rapid review synthesises the literature from academic, policy, and knowledge institution sources on the available evidence on the political economy of the primary education system in Tanzania. The review has a specific focus on what political economy analysis tells us about achieving quality education in Tanzania. Different distributions of power shapes decisions and incentives both at the school level as in the overall educations system. From the literature it can be concluded that building accountability mechanisms within a learning environment is one of the most effective ways to align goals, policy and practice and find a power balance in which reforms could result in quality learning outcomes for all. This could be even more important than financial resources. However, it is important to get the balance right between micro and macro level decision-making processes in quality education reforms, as research shows that they reinforce each other.