This weekend the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) will confer the first degree ever to a student serving a long jail term.

That is highly commendable. The celebrated convict is Haruna Pembe Gombela, who is serving time at Ukonga prison in Dar es Salaam. He will be graduating with a Law degree.

This reminds us how we have lost opportunities for Tanzanian inmates, especially those caught up in criminal offences while still with charging brains at different academic levels.

We say it was lost because most prisons in the world including Kenya, permit inmates to undertake correspondence courses, including degree level studies, Tanzania is experiencing its first success.

Our prisons have hundreds of potential scholars and tutors, and time at their disposal, as inmates are normally herded into cells at 3pm till early the next day.

The prisoners could use part of the period usefully by studying in special classrooms.

Many countries have seen inmates graduate in several disciplines. Some people who have graduated from correspondence studies while in prison include President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who has seven university degrees to his credit.

We urge the government to initiate a broad education programme for inmates.