Unesco: This is the way to quality education for all

Tanzania needs Sh536 billion annually to hire new teachers in its endeavour to provide primary education for all, according to a new report.

Only about half of children of  school-going age in sub-Saharan countries, including Tanzania, know how to read and count, says the 11th Education for All Global Monitoring Report published last week by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). The report does not say, however, how many teachers the country needs to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE).

According to official statistics, Tanzania has a shortfall of over 55,000 teachers in public primary and secondary schools.

The Sh536 billion mentioned in the report is equivalent to about 77 per cent of the 2013/14 budget of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training,  which is Sh689.6 billion.

The government will need donor support, at least initially, to be able to recruit enough teachers and improve the quality of education, the report says.

“Good teachers are the key to improvement and calls on governments to provide the best in the profession to those who need them most. Teachers have the future of this generation in their hands,” Unesco Director General Irina Bokova says in the document.

Commenting on the report, local education analysts yesterday said the findings reflected the situation on the ground, but added that the entire education system needed to be overhauled.

Mr Mtemi Zombwe, an independent education expert, told The Citizen that “the teaching system is dead”.

“The sector lacks direction.  Every school has its own system of imparting knowledge to pupils...some teach in English and others in Kiswahili,” he said, noting such disparities made it difficult to improve the quality of education across the board.

Mr Zombwe said pupils should acquire skills and knowledge instead of being satisfied with merely getting certificates.

The report says 40 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa are unable to read a single sentence because spending on primary education is being lost on poor quality education that fails to ensure children learn.

It commends Tanzania, saying pupils’ average performance in mathematics is better than elsewhere in southern and eastern Africa, but adds that only 25 per cent of poor children living in rural areas are in school and learning compared with 63 per cent of their rich urban counterparts.

Commenting on this, Mr Zombwe said the report was supposed to consider the number of pupils who complete primary education instead of those who are enrolled in Standard One.

“Most of the pupils starting primary education in rural areas don’t complete Standard Seven after dropping out because of a poor learning environment, early marriage and other reasons,” he said.

His views were echoed by another education analyst, Mr Dilly Mtui, who works with the Village Education Project Kilimanjaro (VEPK).

“Very few of the children who are enrolled in Standard One actually complete primary education,” he said.

On the assertion that 63 per cent of children from rich families living in urban areas are in school, he said the actual figure was much lower, unless the report focused only on government schools.

The report says in many sub-Saharan African countries only one in five of the poorest children reach the end of primary school having learnt the basics in reading and mathematics.

By Bernard Lugongo

Source @ The Citizen