THE government plans to abolish fees for A-level students starting next financial year, in a continued effort to ensure free and quality education for all, particularly impoverished, orphaned, and vulnerable children.
Finance and Planning Minister, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba announced the government's decision while presenting the National Budget for 2022/2023 in the National Assembly in Dodoma on Tuesday.
"I propose fee-free education for students in Form Five and Six as directed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Fee-free education would be available from primary to advanced secondary schools," he stated.
Dr Nchemba revealed that currently, the number of Form Five and Six students is 90,825 and 56,880, respectively, with financial demands of 10.3bn/-, assuring that the government was ready to foot the cost.
"Once the economic situation allows, the government is also planning on how to incorporate technical colleges in the programme," he noted.
Dr Nchemba said the government is considering setting up a special window worth 8bn/- through the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), to support dropouts from needy families.
He further said in the 2022/2023 fiscal year, the government will implement the Higher Education for Economic Transformation (HEET) Project worth 425 million US dollars, equivalent to 990bn/-.
According to the minister, the project entails the construction of university infrastructures in existing universities and new colleges for the Lindi, Kagera, Rukwa, Katavi and Manyara regions.
"The project will also finance the completion of the Institute of Marine Science Zanzibar and the construction of a new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre in Dodoma," stated Dr Nchemba, while presenting the 2022-2023 national budget.
In the coming budget, the gov- ernment will continue to build dormitories for girls to address teenage pregnancies, said the minister.
"In order to give options for children who do not continue their education beyond high school and higher learning, the government will continue to strengthen vocational education to improve their capacities for self-employment or employment."
So far, he said there are 77 districts out of 138 districts across the country with Vocational Educa- tion Training Authority (VETA), and there are 25 regions out of 26 with VETA. Dr Nchemba said Songwe Region still has no VETA college and recommended approving 100bn/- for the construction of technical colleges in the region and 36 districts with no technical col- leges for all 138 districts to have technical colleges.
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Earlier, Dr Nchemba said the government will continue to execute a fee-free primary education policy to improve educational possibilities in the country, as he presented the State of the Economy for 2021 and the National Development Plan 2022/2023 report.
He revealed that by April 2022, the government had spent a total of 244.5bn/- to publish and distribute 15,609,515 textbooks and 538,006 teachers' guide books for all subjects in grades VI and VII, thereby strengthening the student-book ratio.
He said the government budget estimates for the Financial year 2022/23 have been prepared in line with various policies, laws and guidelines including; the Third - Five Year National Development Plan (FYDP-III 2021/22-2025/26) which has been prepared in accordance with the National Develop- ment Vision 2025; CCM Election Manifesto 2020; East African Development Vision 2050, Africa Agenda 2063, The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals; Development Cooperation Framework; and other regional and international agreements that Tanzania has ratified.
The FYDP III intends to increase the provision of resources to guarantee that basic, advanced, and tertiary education, as well as technical and vocational training, are geared for inclusive digital learning and teaching.
This will include continuing to expand physical infrastructure and facilities in line with projected changes in the demographics, to allow quality education provision that meets standards for instance number of students/pupils per class, student/teacher, student/ teacher ratios, and teaching aids
