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Tanzania: Recruit More Teachers, Govt Told
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
16 July 2008
Posted to the web 16 July 2008
Samuel Kamndaya
Members of Parliament yesterday urged the government to recruit more teachers to fill the gaps in regions facing critical shortages.
According to the MPs, the country has regions where the teacher-pupil ratio was appalling, with some reports of areas where a single teacher was handling about 200 pupils.
Contributing to debate on budget estimates for the Education and Vocational Training ministry, the MPs said the government must consider teacher-pupil ratio as a criterion for deploying teachers.
A report released by the education ministry in June this year shows that in areas where there are critical shortages of staff, one teacher caters for between 60 and 74 pupils.
The 'Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania' report cites some of the worst hit regions as Shinyanga, Tabora, Kigoma, Mwanza and Rukwa.
Among the regions with good teacher-pupil ratios are Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro. In the two regions, one teacher caters for only 38 pupils on average.
But some MPs said there were regions where one teacher was having up to 200 pupils.
"This shows why there are massive failures in Shinyanga and the such other regions," said MP Abdul Marombwa (CCM- Kibiti).
Mbozi MP Dr Luka Siyame (CCM) said the government must prioritise areas outside Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro when deploying teachers.
He added that regional authorities should be responsible for handling the distribution of teachers in their areas.
Meanwhile, the question of whether or not to scrap forms Two and Four national examinations once more dominated the House on the second day of the education ministry budget debate.
MP Abdul Marombwa (CCM - Kibiti) joined the group of MPs who support the government's decision to continue with the examinations at both levels.
He said while the country aspired to ensure primary and secondary education for all, there was nothing wrong with putting pupils who fail Standard Four examinations under remedial studies.
The MP dismissed arguments by those who opposed the decision on grounds that Tanzania was the only country in the East African Community (EAC) that still conducted national examinations at Standard Four.
Dr Charles Mlingwa (CCM - Shinyanga Urban) and his Ngara counterpart, Prof Feetham Banyikwa, proposed on Monday to have the examinations scrapped.
"There is no need for either Standard Four or Two examinations since what we need is to make primary and secondary school universal to Tanzanians," said Dr Mlingwa.
He said it was not necessary to discourage students by setting examinations at the two levels considering that the country's secondary school enrolment was very low compared with other EAC partners.
In addition, Prof Ngara said: "I find no reason for examining a pupil in class four while we have a vision to attain universal primary education."
According to him, pupils should only be examined in class seven as a way of judging whether or not they deserve to proceed to secondary education.
The professor also said Standard Four examinations were a concept of colonialists who wanted to discourage Africans from pursuing higher education.
He noted that the idea was partly necessitated by the then limited number of places in Standard Five.
"Today, we are talking of universal primary education and we have all the places required for all Standard Four pupils to join Standard Five. I find no reason why we should not rescind the examinations," he argued.
But MP Felister Aloyce Bura (CCM special seats) told the House that considering the shortage of teachers in the country, scrapping the examinations would result in "the country registering primary school graduates who are unable to read and write".
"Records show that most pupils and teachers work hard when they start preparing for examinations because they fear humiliation," she said.
Moreover, she added, since English was not comprehensively taught in most primary schools, scrapping Form Two examinations would result in the endorsement of Form Four graduates "who cannot utter even a word in English".
The MP warned the idea of abandoning the examinations would be detrimental, more so considering that unskilled teachers recruited in crash programmes, staffed ward secondary schools the country was depending on.
These, she said, could not be trusted to train pupils up to Form Four without any process of proving that the pupils had learned and understood.
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In his speech, Education and Vocational Training minister Prof Jumanne Maghembe said the government would continue preparing Standard Four examinations as a means to identify and help slow learners.
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