State places adult education under spotlight

FLORENCE MUGARULA

MINISTER for Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Prof Joyce Ndalichako said yesterday that the government is set to give a special priority to adult education, so as to give opportunity to all Tanzanians who did not attend school to enjoy basic education.

She said the programme has been carried out for years, but her Ministry is looking forward to emphasise it in 2018/19. “We are going to give more emphasis onadult education to enable those who did not get education through formal system to access it,” she said. The Minister was speaking on her ministry’s performance in the past two years during a special interview programme aired by Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC).

On the beneficiaries of Higher Education Students’ Loan Board (HESLB) who have not started repaying their loans, the Minister reminded them, saying they should immediately start doing so or face the law. She said the government will not hesitate to take legal measures against all defaulters. Prof Ndalichako said whoever benefitted from the loan is responsible for paying it back, so that other students could enjoy the same service.

She said those who have established their own businesses or not been employed after completing their education programme should visit the HESLB for more clarification on their situation. “I would like to ask all who benefitted from the loans to repay as required; they should not wait to be taken to court,” she said.

However, Prof Ndalichako said the number of beneficiaries who voluntarily turn up to repay their loans has been going up and asked others to follow suit. In November, 2016, HESLB released the first batch of names of defaulters who were required to repay their loans within 30 days. At least 20,000 names of alleged defaulters were posted on the HESLB website.

Earlier, the HESLB Executive Director, Abdul Razaq Badru, had announced that the board would publish the names of 142,470 defaulters who owed the board a total of 239.3 billion/- in unpaid loans dating back to 1994. Yesterday, Minister Ndalichako said defaulters should not allocate funds for paying legal officers and think of going to court instead they should voluntarily start repaying the debts.

On free education, the Minister said the free education policy removes all contributions including school fees. She said whoever asks for contributions from parents must channel the application to the regional commissioner and the school committee must be involved. She said the government has been providing capitation fee to public schools across the country and that so far there is a big improvement in the provision of education services.

On performance, the Minister said students have recorded good performance in the past two years. She said the success is associated to improvement of learning environment, increase number of teachers and trainings.