Now consumer education comes to children at schools

From SYLIVESTER DOMASA in Dodoma

THE Fair Competition Commission is considering granting incentives to teachers in government schools in a push to fill more champions of consumer education, in a society where million shoppers don’t understand their consumer rights.

Consumer Classroom defines consumer education as one concerned with teaching people the skills, attitudes and knowledge required for living in a consumer society. It is a fundamental component of general education, which should support consumers in their attempts to organise their everyday lives in a sustainable way.
Frank Mdimi, FCC’s Senior Consumer Education Officer told a meeting of teachers and education officers from across Dodoma municipality meeting here “the incentives will be offered monthly.”
The quality control body believes using teachers in public schools will enable reach a wider population in the communities. “Today’s market is predominated by fake and exploitative systems.
It is the market where business people reject goods that are pronounced counterfeit by their customers and hike prices of goods or services,” he said. Adding, the economically powerful business people are now using deceiving adverts to increase their targeted markets. He went on to note that there is no fair competitiveness in the market. Producers are limited and understand how and where to exploit their clients.
“Consumers are many, unfortunately are disorganised and unaware on how to demand for their rights. We believe impacting the consumers’ knowledge from the young generation will help spread the information not only to the little ones but the entire household,” he noted. The school education programme planned by FCC targets to train more teachers and education officers in Dodoma who can deliberate on ways to improve the draft school curriculum.
Ms Magdalena Utouh, FCC Acting Director responsible for Consumers Protection and anti-counterfeit goods says both pupils and secondary students will also benefit from the new campaign being engineered by the country’s quality control body.
Citing influx of fake goods in the market, the director says it had potential consequences in the country’s economy as well as to individuals health and income. “This are goods which are sold at a relatively equal price to genuine goods. We need the public to be able to understand and defend their rights as consumers,” she said.