President John Magufuli listens to the minister of State in the President’s Office-Regional Administration and Local Selemani Jafo (left) explaining about the new buildings constructed at Ihungo Boys Secondary School after the old buildings collapsed due to 2016 earthquake in Kagera Region. Second right is the the minister for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Joyce Ndalichako. PHOTO|STATE HOUSE
Dar es Salaam. President John Magufuli yesterday
demanded increased accountability of leaders responsible for overseeing
the education sector as he revealed the reason for sacking the Geita
District executive director (Ded).
He said leaders should strive to
end challenges in the sector and ensure that value for money is realised
in implementing various educational projects.
Dr Magufuli was
speaking in Bukoba, Kagera Region during the launch of the Sh10.9bn
Ihungo Boys High School rebuilt after being badly destroyed by the 2016
earthquake.
Earlier, he had laid the foundation stone for the
construction of a Sh22 billion Vocational Education and Training
Authority (Veta) regional college.
Addressing the public in a live
televised event, Dr Magufuli said despite the presence of a regional
commissioner, district commissioner, Ded and a professor of Education as
the constituency’s legislator, Barango Primary School in Ubungo
District had damaged classrooms and pupils were still sitting on the
floor due to shortage of desks.
“I commend a journalist who exposed
the rot on social media because there is no politics there like what
district leaders wanted the public to believe. These are issues I would
like to know about,” he said.The President added: “I’m speaking from
Kagera, but when I go back to Dar es Salaam, I want to find construction
of classrooms to have been completed and pupils no longer sit on the
floor.”
He promised to visit the school believing that his message
has been sent and delivered. Dr Magufuli expressed frustration to have
unaccountable appointees at the ministerial level, regional and district
commissioners and Deds despite having set budgets and making revenue
collections.
“That’s why I randomly inspected the classrooms here
instead of visiting the scheduled ones. Fortunately, all classrooms have
desks, I hope those in Ubungo have received the message,” he said.
He
revealed that the Ded in was sacked after procuring a Sh400 million
luxurious car while citizens are told to contribute for the desks and
spent funds donated by a mining firm for purchasing other vehicles. The
President said he would be in a difficult position if the Sh10.9 billion
set for re-construction and rehabilitation of the school would have
been poorly supervised as critics in 2016 wanted the money to be
distributed among citizens. The government was building 33 Veta colleges
across the country capable of accommodating 65,640 students including
the one commissioned yesterday.
He said Veta colleges have increased from 672 in 2015 to 712. Sixty two were owned by the government.
“They
can admit 226,767 students, which is up from 96,997 in 2015 including
56,400 that could be admitted in government colleges alone,” he said.
Dr
Magufuli referred China and the UK as true friends of Tanzania saying
today the government, UK, US and Australia would sign the Kabanga
Nickel project that will be implemented in Ngara District.
“The
project will involve a multimillion dollar investment expected to
generate more jobs for Tanzanians,” he said.The minister of Education,
Science and Technology, Prof Joyce Ndalichako, said in reconstructing
and rehabilitating the school the UK and the government contributed
Sh6.1 billion and Sh4.8 billion respectively.
“After completing the
projec by the Tanzania Building Agency (TBA) under the supervision of
the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces 1,152 students can now be
accommodated at the schools as compared to the previous 640,” he said.
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