Nashauri Bunge litunge sheria ya kutenga
25% ya bajeti kila mwaka kwa ajili ya Elimu. Nakumbusha tena kwamba Kenya wamekuwa wakitenga 25% ya bajeti yao kwa ajili ya Elimu kwa miaka mingi, na mwaka huu wameongeza ikafika
27%.
Mahitaji ya fedha kwa ajili ya Elimu yetu ni makubwa mno. Naomba msome hali ilivyo huko Bagamoyo, kama mfano wa hali halisi.
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Bagamoyo schools reel under shortages
2007-05-29 09:27:37
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz, Bagamoyo
Much as the government is registering giant strides in the construction of public secondary schools countrywide, the next immediate problem is to provide basic and teaching facilities, which are in dire shortage.
For example, Coast Region`s Bagamoyo District is faced with a critical shortage of essential facilities, mainly laboratories, libraries and teaching materials, according to a recent survey.
The scenario is much similar in respect of science teachers and supporting facilities.
Recently, Education and Vocational Training minister Margaret Sitta addressed journalists, outlining the strides made in boosting enrolment of students in public schools countrywide.
The minister`s briefing dwelt exclusively on enrolment, which she said had reached 75 per cent on average in 20 Tanzania mainland regions.
The rest of the regions, Arusha, Dodoma, Lindi, Shinyanga, Singida and Tabora, topped the list with 100 per cent enrolment.
The success in the first phase of secondary school development programme, which deals exclusively with constructing school buildings and staff quarters, is bringing compelling immediate requirements that have to be met.
The building of classrooms and teachers` quarters is being done through contributions made by the wananchi.
A five-day survey carried out by The Guardian from May 21 in Bagamoyo District reveals the challenges that remain ahead.
For example, a school located just seven kilometers from Bagamoyo is without a single desk for the students.
The school, called Sanzale, stands amid coconut farms and has only one small wooden desk for use as headmistress Sofia Kitembe`s office table. There isn`t even a single chair.
``We are just getting off the ground and this is the real situation, as you can see,`` said Kitembe, as she sat on the desk behind a pile of books and pamphlets.
Her office is in one of the four classrooms at the school, three of them are yet to be occupied by students because there are no desks.
At Sanzale School, The Guardian found students from all streams sharing one classroom. All were seated on the floor, save for a handful of lucky ones who had landed pieces of concrete bricks, probably leftovers of building materials in the school compound.
The sharing of classrooms where desks and other facilities are scarce is common in most schools in the district, with Sanzale and Dunda among the worst hit.
This is the main reason for overcrowding in the few relatively well-furnished classrooms around, some accommodating up to 140 students per session instead of the official 45.
The district has only one secondary school -Lugoba - that boasts basic facilities like a well-stocked library and science laboratories. The rest, eight new and seven old ones, are starved of even basic needs.
The new schools are Vigwaza, Sanzale, Kilomo, Zinga, Talawanda, Ubena Zomozi, Kibindu and Matipwiri, while the old ones (built last year or earlier) are Chalinze, Changalikwa, Dunda, Kikaro, Kiwangwa, Matimbwa and Msata.
Bagamoyo District Education Officer Cheka Omary admitted that most schools under her jurisdiction were in bad shape with regard to essential facilities and teaching equipment.
She said Lugoba and Bagamoyo were the only public secondary schools lucky to have a library and science laboratories. The former is under the local authority and the latter run by the central government.
``All other schools either depend on other schools in the area for their science practicals or conduct alternative practicals, which essentially means teaching the practicals theoretically,`` explained Omary.
Sanzale was easily in the most desperate situation of all the four schools covered under the survey, the others being Dunda, Zinga and Msata.
Just like most of the other 15 in the district, particularly Kilomo and Matipwiri, it is located in far-flung areas.
It is seriously short of teaching materials, chiefly books. Teachers are forced to travel long distances to borrow textbooks, supplementary readers and reference books from Lugoba or Bagamoyo.
``The shortage of teaching materials is making life extremely difficult for both teachers and students,`` complained headmistress Kitembe, in whose temporary office are also kerosene stoves and water bowls.
Dunda headmaster Mussa Charles, meanwhile said his school was among those established last year through a similar campaign and is seriously short of teachers, desks and teaching materials.
The situation is especially critical with respect to availability of teachers for almost all key science subjects - Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
Asked on the effect of the problems cited on the quality of education, veteran educationist Mponeja Bundala said the consequences would be catastrophic unless remedial measures were taken without any further delay.
``With the current shortage of teachers and other teaching materials, including books we are not in a position to say that the quality is assured…the matter touches interests of our nation, therefore prompt actions are needed,`` explained Bundala, who teaches in one of the schools in the district.
Noting that even the school where he teaches has no science teacher, he asked the authorities concerned ``to treat education with urgency for the good of the country just like they have been doing with other key or delicate issues``.
Reacting to the challenge, DEO Omary pointed out that authorities in the district were ``very much concerned over the quality of education and that is why we have teamed up with other stakeholders in the sector and formed an education development board to be launched in the near future``.
``We are working overtime to improve all primary and secondary schools in our district, with a view to enhancing the quality of the education offered.
We want to prepare our graduates so that they can compete with others nationally and internationally,`` she added.
A three-year programme (2007 to 2010) being implemented by the Bagamoyo local government authorities shows that phase one, scheduled to run until 2009, concentrates on the construction of classrooms, teachers` houses and students' hostels.
Despite the problems, the general feeling in the district is that the government`s crusade of ensuring that each ward in the country has at least one secondary school is a commendable step forward.