53 years of independence: Are we providing quality education?
8th December 2014
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Since independence in 1961, education has always
been seen as the core of national development, although rapid
expansion-especially of primary schools-came after the 1974 Universal
Primary Education (U.P.E.) programme.
Education played an important role in the reforms that were proposed by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere soon after independence. Mwalimu Nyerere saw education as closely tied to social commitment. He believed that it should encourage both self reliance and cooperation with others.
The system proposed by Mwalimu Nyerere broke rather sharply with colonial programmes of education in several respects. Unlike many African nations, Tanzania placed great emphasis on practical aspects of education. Agriculture, commerce, home economics, technical and scientific subjects have a central role in secondary school curricula. Schooling at each level was to be complete in itself rather than a preparation for the next level. During the first years after independence majority of teachers in Tanzania were expatriates. These have been rapidly replaced by Tanzanians.
According to Mwalimu Nyerere's system, students were to be prepared not primarily for examinations, but for the agricultural life to which most of them would return. Farming workshops, where modern methods are taught inspite of the simplicity of available tools, have become an important part of the process of education. Students were expected to participate in housekeeping and administrative tasks as a means of learning responsibility and cooperation. Primary and secondary school students in towns must work in nearby villages to solidify the links between urban and rural people. During vacations, students in higher education were expected to participate in practical projects related to their field of study; failure to participate brings lower grades.
The major aim of giving education to all Tanzanians is to provide them with a concrete and reliable basis for a self-reliant life. The education that can be guaranteed to all in Tanzania is primary education. Since independence in 1961, education has always been seen as the core of national development, although rapid expansion-especially of primary schools-came after the 1974 Universal Primary Education (U.P.E.) programme.
Generally, income levels of people in Tanzania are very low, and nearly every individual tries to do something on the sideline to try to make ends meet.
Often the practice in primary schools is for teachers to bring things to school to sell, and sometimes a lot more interest is devoted to this sideline activity than the teaching to the extent that it interferes with teaching. While teachers should spend their free or spare time preparing lessons and planning what to teach, much of this time is spent on planning how to survive.
This inevitably affects the quality of teaching and school performances. Again, the poor accommodation of most teachers affects their professional development. A good decent room conducive to reading in the evenings will cost a rent which a teacher cannot pay on a salary. The low level of incomes forces teachers to live in poor accommodation, eat poorly, and dress shabbily to an extent that people look down at the teaching profession.
In addition to these major limitations, the curriculum of primary schools is very tight with very many subjects. All these subjects have to be accommodated within the timetable of five days of teaching per week. Such compactness suggests that everything can only be taught lightly.
Since independence, the Tanzanian government has allocated about 20 percent of its budget to education. However, the finances available at school level are also not enough to buy the support materials like audio visual aids, posters, models, etc, which would make teaching and learning easy.
Because of these big problems associated with the sudden increase of student population due to Universal Primary Education (UPE) campaign in 1970s and the recent Education for All (EFA) campaign, there are some problems which have not even been given sufficient attention since the economy did not grow that fast to cope with the situation. For example, schools need special rooms or facilities for teaching science, geography, models for teaching maths, audio visual aids for teaching children in order to form concepts properly, games kits for physical development of the childrens' bodies, rooms for children with special needs etc. In the absence of many facilities and presence of such huge problems, it is clear that the education that can possibly be given is of a very inferior kind. These scarcities and shortages, coupled with teachers who have very low education, ill-prepared and who are ill-motivated because of the difficult teaching conditions, means that it will take a long time before the country is able to offer a high quality education.
It is evident that the quality of the buildings, the teaching and learning materials, the working conditions of the teachers, and even the environment of learning do not portray a picture that good quality education can be provided in the majority of the Tanzanian primary schools. And yet primary education is what Tanzania claims to afford to all its citizens, which is the foundation that the country's future supply of manpower to develop the country rests. The challenge remains whether, under such conditions, Tanzania is providing the opportunity for the brainpower of its young generation to develop. Nations have become great because of the development of brainpower of its people. The question is, has Tanzania invested properly in the education of its people?
Perhaps it is not numbers that matter but the quality of the education and the resources which are channeled into education to make it a quality education. The amount of money going into primary education is very low, and this is borne out by the observation on the quality of the primary schools and the great limitation on the teaching and learning materials. Tanzania is not rich, but it can set its priorities differently which can improve resource allocation to primary education. It is necessary to realise that good education is an investment whose returns will not be immediate, but will in the long run pay very handsomely.
Tanzania has therefore to fund primary schools education much better if primary education is to remain the best education it can afford to offer to the majority of its citizens.
Since 2003, Tanzania has embarked on an ambitious programme dubbed as ‘Big Results Now (BRN)’ to boost various economic sectors including education, in order to bring quick improvement and results in our economy. As Tanzania aims to move from low-to-middle-income status by 2025, this initiative introduces significant innovations to achieve results much more quickly and efficiently.
Over the last decade, the Education system has struggled to cope with sharp increases in enrollment, as well as various quality-related issues. These include low teaching time, weak performance incentives for teachers, delayed or insufficient resource flows to schools, and the absence of student assessments in early grades.
The Tanzania Government aims to urgently address these quality issues and improve student learning outcomes as quickly and efficiently as possible. It commits to raising Education quality by strengthening accountability, introducing the right incentives, and conducting meaningful assessments within the primary and secondary Education systems.
However, there have been a number of criticisms on the BRN in education sector, as citizens have seen examination results have increased significantly; while there have not been any significant changes on challenges facing the education sector.
As MoEVT is pushing forward BRN in education sector, many education stakeholders including teachers, education officers and general public are pessimistic on whether the BRN ambitious targets will ever be met. I talked to a number of education stakeholders who pointed some anomalies especially sources of financing such an ambitious plan is yet to be confirmed. Though they were told that the implementation of the plan started since April, 2013, many feel that resources are not adequate to push forward this plan countrywide.
In addition, education stakeholders argue that there has been many plans, statements, slogans which aim at improving education in Tanzania, and exciting ceremonies and speeches, however, not much have been put into practice. For example, where did most celebrated ‘kilimo kwanza (agriculture first)’ plan gone? Currently no one is seriously sing that slogan, will BRN survive trials of time?
I understand that reaching quality education needs a lot of plans, time, investment and perseverance. However, our education leaders need to give us confidence that in the near future we would achieve intended goals in education, which is building quality human capital.
The writer is a specialist in Educational Planning, Economics, and Finance. He is reached through: masozi.nyirenda@gmail.com or +255754304181
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
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