Education system set for major overhaul

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Feb 11, 2007
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Education system set for major overhaul

By Polycarp Machira
THE CITIZEN

The education system is set for a major overhaul following the appointment by the Government of a team of 11 experts to review the existing 13-year-old policy, which, it's generally agreed, is outdated and cannot meet the country's needs.

The deputy minister for Education and Vocational Training, Ms Mwantumu Mahiza, announced in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the group of experts had been chosen to collect views from the public on the kind of education system the country should adopt.
Ms Mahiza said the team would be expected to present its recommendations by December.
A retired Permanent Secretary for Education and Labour, Mr Abubakar Rajab, has been named as the consultant to lead the experts to be drawn from various institutions in the public and private sectors.

Mr Rajab, who was with the minister at the press conference, said: This is the only way to come up with a system that will be wholly supported by the public, and aim at improving education in the country.
The Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) and the Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE) immediately welcomed the announcement, saying that the review would offer an opportunity to respond to rising concerns about the quality of graduates from local universities and other institutions of higher learning.

The education system was last reviewed in 1995 following the recommendations of the Makweta Commission of 1984, and a special national commission formed in 1990.

However, academicians argue that in its current form, the system is more than a decade behind the fast socio-political and economical changes taking place in the 21 century. The Makweta Presidential Commission recommendations were to last until the year 2000.

Yesterday, TTU president Gratian Mukoba told The Citizen by telephone that there was need to completely overhaul the national education policy, arguing that the current system had proved ineffective.

Mr Nicolas Mwanji, chairman of ATE, while welcoming the review, urged that the changes be implemented quickly to curb the trend in which the country's development is greatly undermined by poor the quality of its human resource base.

At her press conference, Ms Mahiza said that both the Education and Training Policy of 1995 and the Higher Education and Training Policy of 1996 would be improved to enable the provision of quality education.

The current system, which many have complained about for quite some time, is guided by these policies. There is need to improve them for the country to cope with technological changes in the world, she said.

The team will comprise education experts, gender activists, human rights representatives, youth, representatives from the vocational training sector and universities. The deputy minister said the team would begin collecting views from the public before Parliament resumes for the Budget session in Dodoma on June 14.

The Government, she said, had shown commitment to continually improving the education sector by forming the National Education Advisory Council in 2006.

Almost all issues relating to education sector will be reviewed and the most strenuous ones harmonised. There have always been complaints about the increasing numbers of students compared to the small number of teachers, she said.

With the number of schools up from 1,083 in 2003 to 3,485 in June last year, the ministry was struggling to recruit 5,000 teachers, and recalled 250 retired teachers to cope with the demand in some areas.

But Ms Mahiza said the increasing number of secondary schools in the wards was one of the products of the current policies.

TTU president Mukoba said the poor quality of local university graduates was one of the major sources of concern in the education sector.

Most of these graduates fail to deliver to the expectation of employers, a clear indication that some thing is amiss within our education system.

Our government is still sticking to some colonial policies that have since been abandoned by the former colonisers themselves. If anything, many countries have changed their education systems to cope with new developments in the world, he said.

He said a good education system could help fight the rampant corruption in the public sector.

Mr Mwanji said a good education policy would help produce the required manpower.

He said research conducted by ATE in 2000 and in 2004 showed that most graduates performed poorly at work.

He said that unless serious steps were taken, the country would still have to rely expatriates, denying locals opportunities.Since the formulation of the 1995 education training policy, several changes have been made, and sometimes reversed in Cabinet and ministerial circulars, creating more confusion in the sector.

President Kikwete has twice intervened since coming to power to order the inclusion of disciplines such as sports in the primary and secondary curriculums, after decades of neglect.

The President also ordered that social-science subjects that had been dropped by former minister Joseph Mungai be reinstated. Recently, he asked the ministry to review the importance of standard four and form two national examinations, saying they could be responsible for the high dropout rates.
 
At last!
Thank you Ms.Mahiza and your team for seeing what others couldn't.
 
Well, its a great idea but its a shame that they have decided to choose Mr. Rajab as the so-called 'consultant'.
I question such a choice because of the following reasons.
a. Mr Rajab has never owned a consultancy company that has dealt with educational matters let alone the fact he does not have a degree in Education

b. During his term in office, he briefly held the docket of MOEC for a very brief period as the permanent secretary ( I cannot trace this fact that well since PS have always been moved all over the place), how does that ake him qualify for such a position.

c. I feel the choice of consultant has been politically made or rather a favor doen to a former colleague which I doubt is what we need at this important time in our country's development. He retired from office a year or so ago. I know for one he is a member of a board of some corporation back home. Such membership is usually offered to retirees ili wasiaibike

d. Indeed Mr. Rajab is a very intelligent person but I do not think he is well suited for such sensitive matters. There are issues such as the language of instruction issue, curriculum content, teacher training, instructional materials development and the like. He is not the best choice.

My suggestion, kwa nini MOEC isiteue team ya 'watalaam' wa elimu waliobobea kutoka vyuo vikuu vyetu na iwe an ongoing process sio kupeana mambo haya kiurafiki. Mahiza, I smell a rat here!
 
Some dons from the University of Dar es salaam, have on various occasions made thorough and critical analysis of the said policies, I pray that they should be consulted.
 
Well, its a great idea but its a shame that they have decided to choose Mr. Rajab as the so-called 'consultant'.
I question such a choice because of the following reasons.
a. Mr Rajab has never owned a consultancy company that has dealt with educational matters let alone the fact he does not have a degree in Education

b. During his term in office, he briefly held the docket of MOEC for a very brief period as the permanent secretary ( I cannot trace this fact that well since PS have always been moved all over the place), how does that ake him qualify for such a position.

c. I feel the choice of consultant has been politically made or rather a favor doen to a former colleague which I doubt is what we need at this important time in our country's development. He retired from office a year or so ago. I know for one he is a member of a board of some corporation back home. Such membership is usually offered to retirees ili wasiaibike

d. Indeed Mr. Rajab is a very intelligent person but I do not think he is well suited for such sensitive matters. There are issues such as the language of instruction issue, curriculum content, teacher training, instructional materials development and the like. He is not the best choice.

My suggestion, kwa nini MOEC isiteue team ya 'watalaam' wa elimu waliobobea kutoka vyuo vikuu vyetu na iwe an ongoing process sio kupeana mambo haya kiurafiki. Mahiza, I smell a rat here!

Although your concerns might actually be genuine, one can not help notice the degree of specificity of your attacks against this Mr. Rajabu, furthermore your failure to provide his CV seems to suggest that you are vindictive in your disposition or rather ill-informed about his professional, academic and managerial skills in the education sector. In addition, it appear that you are not aware of the tendering process employed by the Ministerial Tender Board in procuring consultatants... Sio biashara ya gengeni.
 
Well, its a great idea but its a shame that they have decided to choose Mr. Rajab as the so-called 'consultant'.
I question such a choice because of the following reasons.
a. Mr Rajab has never owned a consultancy company that has dealt with educational matters let alone the fact he does not have a degree in Education

b. During his term in office, he briefly held the docket of MOEC for a very brief period as the permanent secretary ( I cannot trace this fact that well since PS have always been moved all over the place), how does that ake him qualify for such a position.

c. I feel the choice of consultant has been politically made or rather a favor doen to a former colleague which I doubt is what we need at this important time in our country's development. He retired from office a year or so ago. I know for one he is a member of a board of some corporation back home. Such membership is usually offered to retirees ili wasiaibike

d. Indeed Mr. Rajab is a very intelligent person but I do not think he is well suited for such sensitive matters. There are issues such as the language of instruction issue, curriculum content, teacher training, instructional materials development and the like. He is not the best choice.

My suggestion, kwa nini MOEC isiteue team ya 'watalaam' wa elimu waliobobea kutoka vyuo vikuu vyetu na iwe an ongoing process sio kupeana mambo haya kiurafiki. Mahiza, I smell a rat here!

Unless I misunderstood the original post, but I believe the task of the committee/team is to collect public views and make recommendations (I assume based on the collected views). Once that is done then education experts can take over and address the issues you are speaking of.
 
My views to the committee if they are reading this forum:

1. The education in Tanzania puts too much emphasis on cramming skills and not enough on critical thinking and reasoning, problem solving skills and extracurricular activities. Engineering student can probably solve the most difficult physics or math problem but not a real world engineering problem. Why? Because the student has crammed many many similar physics and math problems to pass his or her exams. So he or she is familiar with those types of problems. But cramming does not improve critical thinking, reasoning or problem solving skills. So don't just test student's cramming skills, but also test other important skills.

2. Make English the standard learning language. In addition make other international languages such as Chinese, Hindi, French, German etc. part of the curriculum. You never know when Chinese or Indian or German businesses may decide to outsource to Tanzania.
 
Well, its a great idea but its a shame that they have decided to choose Mr. Rajab as the so-called 'consultant'.
I question such a choice because of the following reasons.
a. Mr Rajab has never owned a consultancy company that has dealt with educational matters let alone the fact he does not have a degree in Education
............................. My suggestion, kwa nini MOEC isiteue team ya 'watalaam' wa elimu waliobobea kutoka vyuo vikuu vyetu na iwe an ongoing process sio kupeana mambo haya kiurafiki. Mahiza, I smell a rat here!


Bi Mkubwa, kama sikosei Mr Abubakar Rajabu ana degree ya kwanza na ya pili (Bachelor and Masters) katika fani ya UALIMU. Ushauri wa bure tu, rejea kwa makini source ya data zako. Asante
 
Bi Mkubwa, kama sikosei Mr Abubakar Rajabu ana degree ya kwanza na ya pili (Bachelor and Masters) katika fani ya UALIMU. Ushauri wa bure tu, rejea kwa makini source ya data zako. Asante

Pia kuwa na masters ya education hakumfanyi mtu kujua kila nyanja ya elimu na kuwa wizarani napo kunafanya baadhi ya watu wajali siasa zaidi kuliko taaluma. Nawajua watu kama kina Prof Ishumi na wengine wengi hapa Tanzania wamebobea katika haya mambo ya education, hawa wazee wangeweza kufanya hiyo consultancy. Pia kuna vijana wengi wadogo wako katika kundi la people with highest depression (PhD) na wamebobea katika nyanja mbali mbali za taalum hii ya elimu wangejumuishwa pia. Serikali haipendi kuwashirikisha wataalam kutoka katika vyuo vyetu vikuu katika mambo yanayohitaji utaalamu wa hali ya juu kama haya.
 
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