Africa-Press – Tanzania. FORMER President Jakaya Kikwete has called for massive investment in the education sector as a prerequisite for the country to realize economic growth.
He made the remarks yesterday during the opening of a three-day Financing Quality Education conference in Dar es Salaam, organized to find lasting solutions to challenges facing the education sector in the country.
Mr Kikwete was of the view that proper investment in the education sector would enable the country to produce competent manpower that would help to speed up the implementation of the country’s development agenda.
“It is the responsibility of the government to take a leading role in financing the education sector, but support from development partners is vital,” he said, noting that supporting education was a cross-cutting phenomenon that required due attention from the government and private sector.
He added that finance alone was not a guarantee of attaining success in education improvement in the country but there must also be a deliberate effort from key players that will see advances in the performance of the education sector.
“There should be a strong desire to embrace science and technology by ensuring that all schools are connected to the internet to simplify teaching and learning,” he pointed out.
The former Head of State recalled the situation the country faced last year during the outbreak of Coronavirus, where schools were closed, as part of an effort by the government to contain the spread of the deadly disease.
“You may recall that during the Covid-19 pandemic schools were closed, as a result children from developing countries were not learning at all, but for the countries with technological advancement, their children continued to learn through online classes,” he said.
Earlier, the Swedish Ambassador to Tanzania, Anders Sjaberg noted that education helps to unlock many opportunities for people, adding that there is no way one can ignore its potential.
“For us, we will continue to work abreast with the government of Tanzania and other concerned partners as far as promoting education is known,” he added.
However, he commended the government for introducing a free education policy; which has assured free access to education to many people while insisting that efforts should be made to address the shortage of teachers in order to meet the required teacher to pupil ratio.
On his part, the Tanzania Education Network (TenMet) National Coordinator Mr Ochola Wayoga reiterated that it is their duty to make sure that every child has access to quality education.
Already the government is taking a number of initiatives to improve the education sector, for instance for the financial year 2021/2022, the ministry for Education, Science and Technology plans to spend 1.38tri/- for the sector.
Minister for Education, Science and Technology Prof Joyce Ndalichako said in Parliament recently that her ministry will also address the skills and vocational knowledge gaps in both primary and secondary schools by directing more efforts on agriculture, technical skills and vocational studies.
Moreover, she said, the government will reevaluate the curricula presently in use to ensure that teaching and learning are conducted in accordance to the set criteria.
