Augustine Moshi
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 22, 2006
- 2,554
- 1,382
There is a raging debate on education in Tanzania at the moment. This is as it should be. But there is a lack of clarity on foundational matters.
The political elite is blaming curricula for the woes in education. But we are in fact using the same kinds of curricula that are being used in countries whose educational standards we would like to emulate. Some want to place the blame on poor teachers and curriculum developers! It is poor funding and not bad curricula, that have eroded educational achievements in Tanzania. Funding for education declined from 20% of the national budget at independence to less than 5% of the national budget twenty years later!
I listened to members of parliament giving their views on educational reform today. There was no mention of poor resourcing as the core problem. There was a lot of emphasis on students learning to do things like farming along with other subjects. There is nothing wrong with that but we must not forget that the education for self-reliance program that we had as a companion to the Arusha Declaration was all about that. But it failed because it was poorly resourced.
I submit that it is politicians and not curriculum developers who should take the blame for the sorry state of education in Tanzania.
Let us next look at the language of instruction. There is a widespread belief that our students do not comprehend what they are taught because it is taught in English. But it is not because it is taught in English but rather because they do not know English. People of my generation were taught English and taught other subjects in English and we understood both English and what we were taught in English. We were also taught Kiswahili and could speak and write both English and Kiswahili when we graduated from secondary school. More pertinent perhaps is the fact that students in the well-resourced English medium schools graduate with the ability to speak and write both English and Kiswahili, and with a good comprehension of other subjects taught.
If you ever doubted the double standards of our political elite, then just look at the dichotomy between what they say and do on education. Most of them say that our children will understand better if they are taught in Kiswahili but almost all of them make sure that their own offspring attend English medium schools. My advice to parents who can afford it is: do as they do and not as they say.
Continuous improvement is necessary for everything and that includes education. Educational professionals should continue to review our curricula from time to time, and political leaders should honour and act on the advice given.
There are recent news reports of primary schools with as many as 3000 students having only 6 classrooms. Data from ongoing parliamentary budget presentations and ensuing discussions shows that primary and secondary schools have only about 60% of the staff required and are lacking in classrooms, laboratories and teaching materials. Ablution facilities are also dismal in many schools.
Poor funding and not curricula is the real problem of education in Tanzania. Naivety is another major problem. Too many of us, including people who are in positions of authority, think that we can use only Kiswahili and ignore English. We live in a global community, and Kiswahili is not as important to the rest of the world as some of us think. We must continue to love our language, Kiswahili, and insist that we all speak it, but we need to be able to speak and write English at the same time.
Compatriots, it is not either English or Kiswahili; it is both. I submit that passing both written and oral English and Kiswahili be required for graduation from secondary school and that no one who is not competent in both languages should be employed by the government. Job interviews must ensure that only those who can speak English and Kiswahili fluently may be offered employment by the government. It can be done; it must be done if we want to be a nation that engages with the rest of the world successfully.
We are planning to have many tourists visit us. How do we interact with them if our immigration officers, our customs officers, our police officers and almost all men and women who work in the tourism industry speak only Kiswahili?
The political elite is blaming curricula for the woes in education. But we are in fact using the same kinds of curricula that are being used in countries whose educational standards we would like to emulate. Some want to place the blame on poor teachers and curriculum developers! It is poor funding and not bad curricula, that have eroded educational achievements in Tanzania. Funding for education declined from 20% of the national budget at independence to less than 5% of the national budget twenty years later!
I listened to members of parliament giving their views on educational reform today. There was no mention of poor resourcing as the core problem. There was a lot of emphasis on students learning to do things like farming along with other subjects. There is nothing wrong with that but we must not forget that the education for self-reliance program that we had as a companion to the Arusha Declaration was all about that. But it failed because it was poorly resourced.
I submit that it is politicians and not curriculum developers who should take the blame for the sorry state of education in Tanzania.
Let us next look at the language of instruction. There is a widespread belief that our students do not comprehend what they are taught because it is taught in English. But it is not because it is taught in English but rather because they do not know English. People of my generation were taught English and taught other subjects in English and we understood both English and what we were taught in English. We were also taught Kiswahili and could speak and write both English and Kiswahili when we graduated from secondary school. More pertinent perhaps is the fact that students in the well-resourced English medium schools graduate with the ability to speak and write both English and Kiswahili, and with a good comprehension of other subjects taught.
If you ever doubted the double standards of our political elite, then just look at the dichotomy between what they say and do on education. Most of them say that our children will understand better if they are taught in Kiswahili but almost all of them make sure that their own offspring attend English medium schools. My advice to parents who can afford it is: do as they do and not as they say.
Continuous improvement is necessary for everything and that includes education. Educational professionals should continue to review our curricula from time to time, and political leaders should honour and act on the advice given.
There are recent news reports of primary schools with as many as 3000 students having only 6 classrooms. Data from ongoing parliamentary budget presentations and ensuing discussions shows that primary and secondary schools have only about 60% of the staff required and are lacking in classrooms, laboratories and teaching materials. Ablution facilities are also dismal in many schools.
Poor funding and not curricula is the real problem of education in Tanzania. Naivety is another major problem. Too many of us, including people who are in positions of authority, think that we can use only Kiswahili and ignore English. We live in a global community, and Kiswahili is not as important to the rest of the world as some of us think. We must continue to love our language, Kiswahili, and insist that we all speak it, but we need to be able to speak and write English at the same time.
Compatriots, it is not either English or Kiswahili; it is both. I submit that passing both written and oral English and Kiswahili be required for graduation from secondary school and that no one who is not competent in both languages should be employed by the government. Job interviews must ensure that only those who can speak English and Kiswahili fluently may be offered employment by the government. It can be done; it must be done if we want to be a nation that engages with the rest of the world successfully.
We are planning to have many tourists visit us. How do we interact with them if our immigration officers, our customs officers, our police officers and almost all men and women who work in the tourism industry speak only Kiswahili?
