10,000 foreign teachers face deportation Sha

Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Said Meck Sadick has moved to assure foreign nationals found with expired work permits that they will not be immediately deported. PHOTO | FILE 

By Saumu Mwalimu and Katare Mbashiru  (email the author)

In Summary

\However, the ministry of Education and Vocational Training said it was not in a position to help private school owners who have employed illegal immigrants.

Dar es Salaam. About 10,000 teachers face expulsion in the crackdown on illegal immigrants, private school owners said yesterday.

The Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners of Non-Government Schools and Colleges (Tamongsco) told The Citizen that the crackdown would have serious repercussions on private English medium schools.

Tamongsco secretary-general Benjamin Nkonya said most schools could not afford the $2,000 (Sh3.2 million) fee for a two-year work permit required for foreign teachers.

“A school with ten foreign teachers, for example, cannot afford to pay $20,000 (Sh32 million). We have appealed that the fee either be scrapped or reduced,” he said.

School owners brought the matter to the attention of President Jakaya Kikwete in Mbeya last year, and were still waiting for a response, Mr Nkonya added.

He said Tomongsco members told President Kikwete that they had no option but to hire foreign teachers to work in private English medium schools due to a shortage of local tutors.

The teacher to student ratio in Tanzania is 1:40, with a demand of 23,546 teachers. There are 13,657 teachers, which is only 58 per cent of requirements.

This has prompted private schools to employ 9,889 teachers from neighbouring Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.

Mr Nkonya also accused police and immigration officers of mistreating and humiliating foreign teachers, saying some had been handcuffed in front of their pupils and bundled into police vehicles.

“This is not only humiliating, it also had an adverse psychological effect on pupils, especially those who were sitting the Standard Seven national examination,” he said.

However, the ministry of Education and Vocational Training said it was not in a position to help private school owners who have employed illegal immigrants.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Mr Bunyanzu Ntambi, said foreign teachers should not expect preferential treatment and must abide by immigration regulations.