Dodoma — DODOMA: THE Institute of Rural Development Planning (IRDP) at Dodoma's main campus has developed six different new curricula which have already been included in its courses after receiving blessings from the National Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training - NACTVET.
According to IRDP Rector Professor Hozen Mayaya in the implementation of the institute's core responsibilities, during 2022/2023 financial year, IRDP found it imperative to improve its programmes in its plan to provide long-term training and that the new courses came into effect during this academic year (2023/2024).
They include Information and Communication Technology - ICT for NTA levels 4, 5 and 6, Accounting and Finance for NTA 4, 5 and 6 as well as Urban and Regional Planning - URP for NTA Level 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Others are Geomatics for NTA 4, 5 and 6, Human Resource Management for NTA level 9 and Environmental Health for NTA level 9.
Prof Mayaya was speaking during the 37th graduation ceremony of the institute's Dodoma campus which saw a total of 6,362 (2,783men and 3,579 women) graduating from different programmes for the 2022/2023 academic year.
The number of graduates at IRDP keeps on increasing year after year, according to Prof Mayaya. He noted that this year's graduates have increased by 137 compared to 6,225 students who graduated in the 2021/2022 academic year.
Other achievements attained by the institute during 2022/2023, include completion of a large lecture theatre at the cost of 2.035bn/-. The theatre is located at Miyuji North area in the outskirts of Dodoma city.
"Also, regarding the construction of its buildings at its Mwanza campus in the lake zone, during 2022/2023 financial year, two major buildings, which include a library that was built at a cost of 3.46bn/- and a hostel (2.031bn/-), and the two buildings were fully funded by the government," he noted.
The IRDP rector showered praises to the Sixth Phase Government led by President Samia Suluhu Hassan for continuously enabling the higher learning institution financially so that it can effectively and efficiently discharge its core businesses of teaching, academic consultancy and conducting research seeking to catalyse rural development in the country.
At the graduation ceremony, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Jenifa Omolo, said that the government was making varied efforts in helping parents/guardians to ease the burden of taking their children to school from the primary to university level.
"As you may be aware, currently the government is providing free basic education from kindergarten to form six and the government decided to ban all nuisance fees and contributions in primary and secondary school so that all eligible Tanzanians are accessing education," she said.
In higher learning institutions, the PS said, the government had been increasing budget for the Higher Education Students' Loans Board (HESLB) whereas during the 2023/24 budget for loans, the government allocated 731bn/- compared to 570bn/- that was provided in 2022/23 financial year, which was an increase of 28per cent.
She added that loan beneficiaries had equally increased from 177,777 in the last academic year to about 220,376, which was an increase of 23per cent.
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Earlier in his remarks, IRDP Vice-Chairperson of the council, Dr Samwel Werema said that because IRDP was the only higher learning institution responsible for preparation of experts for development planning in the country, the institution was well planned to continue observing professionalism and hardworking, so as to complement efforts by the government to help Tanzanians in various development endeavours.
"The council pledges to continue supervising this institute so that it can record a desired success and expected goals by observing the country's laws, regulations and guidelines provided by the government and I want to state categorically that the institute's management has always been cooperative to the council by implementing all the directives that seek to increase efficiency and service delivery," noted Dr Werema in his speech read on his behalf by Dr Remidius Ruhinduka.
