THE Catholic Church has commended the government for its bold commitment in the crackdown against fake academic and professional certificates among civil servants in the country.
It has expressed its disappointment
though that the exercise, including that of clearing the government data
on its genuine worker’s has already cost a lot of resources that could
otherwise been saved for other social services.
The remarks were made by the Archbishop
of Mwanza Archdiocese, Juda Thadeus Ruwaichi, who was a guest of honour
during the graduation ceremony at the Saint Augustine’s University of
Tanzania (SAUT) here at the weekend.
According to the archbishop, the search
for fake credentials among public servants has, despite its good
intention, painted a bad image on the public service, which requires
highly credible and professional personnel.
He cautioned the tendency of some of the
people preferring shortcuts in attaining academic portfolios and
recognition, adding that any aspiring academician should strive to
access higher education and bear its involved costs.
“The country needs as many professionals
as possible but those with integrity and discipline in their areas of
services that will make Tanzania shine both locally and globally. But
there will always be no shortcut in attaining that achievement,” he
cautioned.
However, Bishop Ruwaichi said the
government was obliged to provide education to its people and put up
enabling environment for every citizen to acquire higher education
possible. He gave a thumbs-up for the provision of loans to the students
in higher learning institutions but challenged the responsible
authorities to be transparent in making sure every eligible student gets
it and proceed with education.
The Catholic Church, he reaffirmed, will
keep on partnering with the government in providing quality social
services-- remaining proud of many of SAUT graduates reportedly
performing well in their areas of employment. The same challenge went to
the graduates, with ArchBishop Ruwaichi asking them to pray and remain
God-fearing ‘’since without His Grace, nothing tangible can be
achieved’’.
“Yes our country is peaceful of which we
thank God for but that is not enough if we academicians don’t fight to
retain our peace and take action to preserve it through hard work and
honesty,” he said. Earlier, the SAUT Vice- Chancellor, Dr Thadeus
Mkamwa, said private universities were doing good job so far, asking for
the government to engage them as it plans policy changes in the
education sector.
He also advised on the ongoing exercise
in which the government has decided to check the registration status of
the higher learning institutions, including the qualifications of its
lecturers, saying no stone should be left unturned.
Dr Mkamwa appealed to the government to
look into the possibility of giving grants to the students from poor
families and provide loans to students whose parents can’t afford paying
as per agreements.
“There is a problem here. I am saying
this as just a personal opinion that this area should be carefully
studied. Loans should be dished out to those who can manage to repay
them while the poor are given grants for deliberate reason of seeing
them getting higher education as well,” said the VC.
Nearly 700 students at SAUT, which is
equivalent to 20 per cent of around 2,400 students, failed to graduate
this year with inability to pay tuition fees given as one of the
reasons.
Two staff from Tanzania Standard
(Newspapers) Limited (TSN), publishers of the ‘Daily News’ and ‘Sunday
News’, ‘HabariLeo’, ‘Habari- Leo Jumapili’ and ‘SpotiLeo’, Mr Nicodemus
Ikonko and Mr Mgaya Kingoba, were among the graduates.
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