Our education policy must be regenerative

This is not to say that there have not been any strides in this sector. Nationally, this sector has registered some impressive achievements. To wit, there has been an increase in the number of school goers coupled with increased number of classes and a myriad of institutions.

For example, we have 80 per cent of primary school goers attending school, while almost in every ward in the country there is a secondary school and the number of varsities and colleges has had risen from a dozen to several scores.

Yet the negative side is not without a listing-- the education quality has been low, the number of drop-outs has been on the increase, lack of competence is on the rise, morale is low and motivation among students and even teachers is in big demand.

As if those were not enough, last week a non profit organisation - HakiElimu posted yet another important anomaly in Tanzania’s education sector.

Releasing the 2014 report titled ‘Education and Training Policy’ in Dar es Salaam on last week, Prof Suleiman Sunga observed that in developing countries like Tanzania which enjoys a growing economy, albeit it suffers from abject poverty, education policy must focus on economic and poverty reduction.

Needless to say, Tanzania is poor and therefore needs to revamp its economy, he said.

Tanzania is in the bottom quartile of countries with the lowest level of human development ranking at 159 out of 187 countries.

What is more startling is that the country’s position in Human Development Index ranking in 2014 has decreased by seven positions in comparison to the previous one.

This state-of-affair means that education sector which is a vital component in development must overhauled.

One of the findings of HakiElimu report is that the country’s poor quality of education is an outcome of poor teaching and poor quality of teachers.
For instance, the country’s 2014 policy remains silent on the qualifications required for a person to become a teacher.

The policy, according to the NGO has failed to address the question the immediate changes that are necessary to ensure graduate students are able to compete in the job market.

To improve the situation, the analysis suggested enhancement of teacher competences, motivation, supervision, availability of teaching and learning materials as well as improvement of the teaching and learning environment.
It also urged the government to come up with strong strategies to ensure universal access to education by bridging the existing gap between the poor and the rich.

Education will be very much helpful if it should alleviate poverty in the country.

We often hear politicians boasting of high growth rates realised by the nation. In reality, however, this does not reflect the commensurate efforts being taken to reduce poverty. The so called high growth rate has not trickled down to the poverty stricken population.

It is here where the need for economic transformation is required.
And this is where quality education as the key agent comes in. It is our view that economic transformation in Tanzania and the resultant poverty reduction depends on how best education sector is programmed.