Let us not have hordes of jobless graduate teachers

It is none other than the prospect of having thousands of unemployed arts graduate teachers.

This is on the basis of authoritative reports from, among other quarters, the Dar es Salaam and Mkwawa (Iringa) university colleges of education. They show that most arts graduate teachers who were handed degree certificates in November last year are yet to land proper jobs.

That means another crop of graduate teachers who completed their studies in November this year are yet to land jobs as well, this not so including graduates of other universities in Tanzania and outside the country.

The key problem area is the arts field in that the government de-emphasises the studying of arts subjects in secondary schools, trying to gallop towards a technology era by overly forceful embracing of science and technology.

This rush can have predictable and debilitating consequences on other fields of learning if we let those fields go without qualified teachers, even in the case of graduates.

In the first place its advisable that if experts sat down and discussed these things in a sober mood, it would be confirmed that mental or academic orientation or inclination isn’t just a matter of national emphasis but is commonly inherited.

Whether to pursue arts or science fellow isn’t something a secondary school student should wait to hear from a subject master rendering some candid advice, as often one’s mental orientation is, as it were, in the blood.

Lawyers aren’t lawyers by accident, nor for that matter are medical generalists, that sort of interest is psychic before it is advised.

While it is proper to lay a certain amount of emphasis on science subjects and encourage those who can do science to do so, there is a limit to which studying science can be made a matter of policy, as it seems to be the case now in our country.

It is not true that a young person in secondary school can study either arts of science depending on what will be drummed into his or her head to be the better choice, or national priority, etc. There are those whose interests are even, balanced between the two sides, and clearly those can be pulled to the side of science if the emphasis is right.

The problem, as we see it, is the creeping situation of underplaying the importance or relevance of downplay, as if the arts were but a burden and development can only be cultivated by science and technology.

Such a proposition would be faulty because, indeed, it takes a rich mix of professions and expertise to build a nation – not just S&T.

Not everybody wakes up each morning to go burning iron rods and smelting or recycling some material. Most people begin the day by taking stock of their routine activities, and thereafter think of what to do next.

Most social interaction isn’t anchored in science despite needing materials manufactured or rehabilitated using technology, whether locally accessed or foreign.

Education is about moulding young people into responsible adults, and they will be needed in all sorts of roles where education, the sum total of human experience in a certain field, will be needed for their broader, intelligent formation.

Unless this is what we aim for, we shall start sensing yawning knowledge and expertise gaps, which would force us to invite foreigners to teach so many subjects at college level as our own people will be arts illiterate.