Exciting news on teaching of science subjects, but…

In this high tech era when most talk in the world is on concepts like globalisation and industrialisation, this is rightly a matter of grave concern.

Accordingly, it is little wonder that efforts by the government to deal with the challenges this scenario both presents and involves have included pronouncements on the “urgent need” to accord the teaching of the subjects referred to with the seriousness they deserve.

It was in this spirit, driven by concern by both education experts and the larger public concern over the matter, that immediate past president Jakaya Kikwete issued what is widely considered a landmark directive meant to turn things around in our education sector.

In line with the directive, regional and district local and central government authorities across Tanzania were under obligation to see to it that all secondary schools in the areas they oversaw had science laboratories in place by a November 2014 deadline – that was in a matter of five or so months.

The country turned into one massive “beehive of activity”, as wards, districts and regions fought to outdo one another in implementing the presidential order to the letter.

As happened, though, the president appreciated the vigour with which things were moving but was convinced that circumstances beyond the respective authorities’ control rendered the deadline impossible to beat.

So he extended a six-month grace period to run from December 2014, and reports now suggest that all but very few areas have registered remarkable success – for some the only major challenge yet to be addressed fully being how to equip the labs to satisfaction.

But the government’s focus in this respect has not been only on the establishment of the labs in all the thousands of public and private secondary schools in the country.

In fact, a director in the policy and planning wing of the Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training ministry is on record as having declared on Thursday that plans were ripe to ensure phase-by-phase distribution of science lab equipment and supplies worth 16 billion/- to over 1,600 public secondary schools.

It was also revealed that 700 science teachers are currently undergoing training in a number of colleges and universities, with the government upbeat all these will complete their studies next year and help ease even further the shortage in the respective ranks.

However, it is still necessary for the government to come clean on the raging controversy relating to the non-engagement of hundreds of science and arts graduate teachers when it is common knowledge that not all schools, colleges and other institutions of learning in the country have big enough armies of qualified members of the academic staff.

We are in a sophisticated era of science and technology where globalisation has menacing challenges for nations and communities and where countries not all that generously endowed to cope will easily fall by the wayside unless they put their human and natural resources to the best use possible.

This is a clarion call for us to maximise and optimise all the resources at our disposal, the judicious deployment of our science and other experts being part of the recipe for succeed. We need to ensure that we move in that very direction.