Singida set to launch regional education fund to support students

The initiative was announced by Singida Regional Commissioner, Peter Serukamba, during a recent Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) meeting after discovering that some students who passed their exams failed to proceed to secondary education because of their parents’ inability to finance their education.

“If we want to see our children excel and have outstanding performance, we must have a Regional Education Fund that will support students who exhibit good performance at school whose parents cannot afford to pay for their education,” he said.

Serukamba said a procedure to identify such students whose parents are financially challenged will commence in their residential areas through village leaders and heads of schools.

The Regional Commissioner said among the things that will pioneer a student’s success include holding frequent meetings with district commissioners, education officers, councillors, and ward executives to follow-up on students who skip classes and ensure food is available in schools.

Dr Fatuma Mganga, Singida Regional Administrative Secretary, expressed optimism on the initiative to start a regional education fund adding it can be implemented at 100 percent capacity while citing an example from Bahi district in Dodoma region which saw the plan succeed.

“The same initiative which is already being implemented in Bahi district through livestock permits which generated close to 60- percent in revenue in auctions where 2000/- was charged per cow. Later on, the initiative was approved by the councillors and the charges rose to 4000/- from the initial 2000/-,” she said.

Dr Mganga also highlighted after collecting the revenue generated, the chairperson of Bahi District Council visited villages and wards to offer the funds to poor families, and the only requirement was the child to exhibit good performance in school for his/her needs like uniforms to be met.

She stated further that the region can scout for a potential source of revenue and use Bahi district’s example where the money collected can help meet the needs of children in the respective district.