Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is working to incorporate digital skills in curricula at all levels of education.
The move seeks to enable Tanzanians to engage actively and take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Minister for Education, Science and Technology Prof Joyce Ndalichako revealed this over the weekend, while closing the 7th Innovation Week Tanzania organised by Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) in collaboration with Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
“Government takes innovation and technology matters seriously and has been and is still investing heavily to ensure that our people are equipped with relevant skills and are ready to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the 4th Industrial Revolution,” she said.
Prof Ndalichako said that the sixth phase government had made a commitment to direct more efforts on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) when President Samia Suluhu Hassan addressed the Parliament last month, in Dodoma.
The president said “As we all know, the World is in the midst of the fourth Industrial Revolution, which is being driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT)… as such, the World Economy and other activities are highly dependent on ICT …in view of that, Tanzania cannot afford to remain behind”.
Prof Ndalichako said that, as her ministry is currently working to review the education curricular, they will make sure that innovation and digital skills are incorporated in the syllabus to allow the country to produce graduates with requisite skills, which will enable them to cope with emerging digital technologies.
She further said that, this year’s theme “Innovation for a Resilient and Inclusive Digital Economy” is relevant, timely and aligns well with the government’s efforts to ensure that innovation is at the heart of achieving the country’s industrialization agenda and the creation of jobs.
She said Tanzania has embarked on its digital transformation journey as outlined in the Third Five Years Development Plan 2021-2026, through a national digitalisation strategy.
“This digital transformation journey Tanzania has embarked on is meant to ensure that the digital economy benefits are realized,” Prof Ndalichako said.
She reaffirmed the government’s commitment to continue improving the policy and regulatory environment to allow innovations to flourish and scale up.
On his part, HDIF Country Director, Joseph Manirakiza said that his organization has made remarkable contributions towards building the innovation ecosystem in Tanzania in the past seven years.
He said during its seven years’ existence, HDIF focused on three key areas, including providing financial and technical support to innovative projects in Health, Education and WASH, catalyzing the Tanzanian innovation ecosystem, and contributing to the improvement in innovation enabling environment through sharing, learning, convening and engagements with key stakeholders.
“The programme provided financial and technical support in the form of competitive grants to 48 projects, but also supported over 55 start-ups and hubs, either through various challenges and competitions, or through the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH),” he said.
Mr Manirakiza noted that as the current phase of the programme funded by DFID is coming to an end in July this year, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has come up with a new innovation ecosystem support programme dubbed “Funguo” to support Tanzania innovation startups.
