VICE-PRESIDENT Dr Philip Mpango has challenged professionals in the field of science and technology to align their researches to finding environment-friendly technologies that ordinary Tanzanians could afford.
Dr Mpango made the call on Monday, citing environment-friendly cooking energies as one of areas that researchers could find affordable technologies.
"We should invest and focus on environment-friendly technologies.
Without science and technology, we will not move forward, let's focus there," the VP insisted when visiting the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) in Dar es Salaam.
His visit was meant to get to hear challenges facing the OUT as the only higher learning institution in the country which offers Open Distance Learning (ODL) in the country.
In his speech, Dr Mpango further told the researchers to do researches that could solve socio-economic problems in the country while aligning their studies to national priorities.
He promised that the government will continue improving the University for it to produce more competitive graduates in the job market.
"We (government) have put more emphasis on investing in education, therefore, higher learning institutions should prepare for enrolling more students but without compromising quality," he assured.
For the OUT's expansion plans, he directed Prof Adolf Mkenda, Minister for Education, Science and Technology to collaborate with the Finance and Planning Minister in soliciting funds from development partners for buying the Biafra building, which the OUT is currently renting.
The building is sold at 2.4bn/- and the university has so far paid 870m/-, hence asked the government to help pay the remaining amount.
Meanwhile, the VP directed Prof Mkenda to speak with telecoms to see the possibility of offering special internet bundles for OUT-registered students in efforts to help them effectively follow up classes through online.
Earlier, Prof Mkenda stated that his docket has put in place measures that would see an increase of enrolment in higher learning institutions without compromising quality.
To improve the quality of education offered by higher learning institutions, he said the ministry considers reviewing procedures used to recruit lecturers, hinting that recruitment will not just consider academic grades (GPA) but a candidate for employment would be required to do a presentation as an assessment tool.
He further assured that the government will ensure fair issuance of loans to higher learning students.
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In his remark, OUT Chancellor Mizengo Pinda, promised the vice-president the university would submit to the government research papers done by OUT academicians so that the findings could contribute to solutions to various national challenges.
Mr Pinda stressed on the challenges facing the OUT, especially academic infrastructures such as buildings.
On his part, OUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Elifas Bisanda appreciated support from the government in construction of academic buildings in different regions.
The government had provided 1.8bn/- to the OUT for constructing its academic centres in five regions, including Geita, Simiyu, Kigoma, Lindi and Manyara. The construction works have reached over 90 per cent.
Also, through the Higher Education for Economic Transformation (HEET) project, the government has provided OUT with 9 million US dollars (about 21bn/-) for the construction of science laboratories in seven zones.
Prof Bisanda also mentioned a challenge of high spending on the internet as the university spends about 1bn/- annually on paying for internet costs, hence praying for support from the government.
