Tanzania: Education sector needs change

JIMMY LWANGILI

EDUCATION stakeholders have challenged the higher learning institutions to conduct researches which would help the government to improve the education sector.

The stakeholders aired their views in Dar es Salaam yesterday at the end of a two-day joint symposium on “Tanzania towards industrialisation and rethinking education for self-reliance policy.”

The workshop organised by the University of Dar es Salaam and ‘HakiElimu’ Corporation and attended by various education stakeholders including secondary school students and professors from higher learning institutions.

Reading the general overviews of the workshop, Dr Bashiru Ally said at the meeting that they have discovered that since Independence the education sector in the country has improved despite a number of challenges.

“The education sector has improved now when compared to previous years. Today members of the public are aware of the need to invest in education and this investment has risen.

Nowadays dependency on foreign intellectuals has decreased because we have many local academicians,” said Dr Bashiru.

He further noticed that despite the success in the education sector the establishment is facing various challenges including shortage of teachers, poor teaching methods and bad learning infrastructure.

This has resulted in most pupils of public schools to accomplish their studies without knowing know to write, read and count. The stakeholders came up with various suggestions for improving the education sector including to advise the higher learning institutions to conduct a research that would help the government to usher in improvement.

They advised the government to invest in more science teachers who would help in producing skilled people who would help to promote the country’s economy through the industrial sector.

HakiElimu Corporation Executive Director, Mr John Kalage has suggested the government to form an education regulatory authority that would supervise the system.

“It is better for the government to have an education regulatory authority that would make a research before making any system adjustment in the education sector because now we are making adjustments without gauging the negative and positive effects,” he said.

At the same occasion a form six student of Azania Secondary, Djeskan Dihonga, suggested that secondary schools should establish entrepreneurship skills subjects that would help the youth to develop their potential.