Tanzania: Delivering On Promises, Magufuli's Scoring Card

By Deus Ngowi

ALMOST five years on, President John Magufuli has already put his services into thousands of files,

unequivocally reforming key socio-economic sectors, notably education, mining and energy.

As his first tenure in office elapses in a few months and the second highly-anticipated, Dr Magufuli's sound feats in the education sector could play as among his winning cards going into the next election.

His government has invested handsomely in education, putting in place a standard learning and teaching environment.

Among key measures taken by the fifth phase government include; introducing free education from pre-primary to secondary level, enhancing loans to higher learning students, prioritizing science and going in line with perfection of revenue and expenditure control.

His government's snowballing of development budget from 26 per cent when he came into power in 2015 to 40 per cent has unarguably fast-tracked improvement of key social services and implementation of huge strategic projects.

In terms of education delivery, the government has of February 2020, disbursed 1.01trn/- to implement the free-education policy.

It is one of the pledges, the ruling party CCM made through its Election Manifesto (2015 - 2020). In Chapter Four - Social Services Delivery (92), the party guaranteed that its government would oversee implementation of Education and Training Policy of 2014 by ensuring a system, structure and flexible arrangement are put in place to provide free education from preprimary and primary school.

The logic behind was to see enrolment of the respective age group of children upsurges from 45 percent in 2015 to 100 percent by 2020. Under the 2015 Education and Training Policy, primary and secondary education was made compulsory to every child and free to all.

On cards was also a plan to improve the whole education system so as more pupils attain high pass marks and proceed to secondary schools, colleges, tertiary institutions and universities and ultimately get employed or self-employ themselves.

The manifesto also pledged to increase the number of schools so as to accommodate more students at all levels. It also promised to supply schools with equipment, desks and textbooks, among other needs. It put a special emphasis on science subjects at all levels.

Counting the gains in June, this year, Dr Magufuli talked of an increase in the number of schools from 16,899 in 2015 to 17,804 (primary schools) and from 4,708 in the same year to 5,330 (secondary ones) this year.

There was an extensive exertion in renovation of 73 old secondary schools' buildings out of 89 in that shape.

"We have constructed 253 dormitories and 227 rooms for laboratories. Either, we have supplied equipment for 2,956 laboratories and have substantially reduced the challenge in shortage of desks as its number has increased from 3,024,311 desks in 2015 to 8,095,207 - translating it as a 200 per cent increase," he said when dissolving the Parliament in Dodoma June this year.

As for Teacher Training Colleges (TTC), his administration has constructed two new ones, Murutunguru and Kabanga. The Government has sent 1,550 computers to all 35 TTCs in a bid to improve teaching of Information Communication Technology (ICT) subjects. It has also renovated infrastructure and improved teaching aids at 54 Folk Development Colleges (FDCs) while it built hostels, lecture halls, food courts and libraries at universities.

Due to such measures, enrollment at primary and secondary schools has increased considerably - while there was an average enrollment of a million children in 2015 but now it stood at 1.6 million. The number of students in Form I - IV has sharply risen from 1,648,359 in 2015 to 2,185,037. As for the Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA) the number went up to 226,767 from 117,067 in 2015.

"At FDCs the number went up from 6,693 in 2016/17 to 9,736 in 2018/19. At universities enrolment for the first-year students has increased from 65,064 in 2015 to 87,813 in 2020.

Those receiving loans have increased from 98,300 in 2014/2015 to 130,883 in 2019/2020 ... I will not have gone wrong if I say that a massive exertion has been done in the education sector," he said amid applause from the MPs.

Presenting her ministry's budget estimates for FY 2020/2021, Education and Vocational Training Minister Professor Joyce Ndalichako said the ministry was looking forward to have Tanzanians educated, with knowledge, skills, competence, ability and positive attitude in contributing to national development and the budget for the current FY is 2,239,181,000/-.

Such reforms have endeared Dr Magufuli to ordinary Tanzanians and education stakeholders, who are backing him for the second term in the country's highest office. Among those rallying behind the incumbent Head of State are education institutions such as Tanzania Higher Learning Institutions Students Organisation (TAHLISO).

Also backing him is the Federation of Miners Association of Tanzania (FEMATA), an association that brings together miners, a sector that has registered colossal feats after the President invented sweeping measures that led to surge in revenue from the extractive industry to whopping 528bn/- in Financial Year 2019/2020, up from a meagre 168bn/- in 2014/15.

On the science frontier the government has walked the talk by going an extra mile in the field of atomic energy and radiation with Tanzania becoming the second country in Sub-Saharan Africa to put in place a modern laboratory complex to increase the safety and control of radiation sources in the country.

The Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission (TAEC) is embarking on a second phase of constructing a laboratory complex of its own kind that will put the country ahead of the other five East African countries in the field, strengthening its services through calibrating and testing of radiation detection equipment.

TAEC Director General, Professor Lazaro Busagala says the contract that was signed between the Government and a Chinese firm, Li Jun Development Construction Company in September last year would see some 10.4bn/- put in use for construction of the lab.

As of now, Tanzania is only second to South Africa in the Sub-Saharan region for such a complex and modern lab that meets international standards in atomic energy and nuclear instrumentation.

It will include eight laboratories and a training centre that is important for security purposes. TAEC has already run courses to people from several countries in that field.

The laboratory is of a great use in the implementation of industrialisation policy and in the mineral sector as the country is about to start mining uranium, so that residents of the country are devoid of negative effects from such mining.

The first phase of the lab cost 2.5bn/- and was launched by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa last year.

The laboratory complex is a huge support to more than 120 centres that are associated with radiation and atomic energy services. It increases efficiency in the field, support industries, cancer treatment, produce professionals, help in food preservation, research and increase awareness of radiation and nuclear science among the members of the public. TAEC will be able to process up to 40,000 samples per year up from the current 27,000.