Africa-Press – Tanzania. MINISTER of State in the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government, Mr Innocent Bashungwa, has ordered all Regional Commissioners (RCs) to submit reports over construction of15, 000 classrooms using Covid-19 relief funds by Tuesday next week.
Mr Bashungwa said the reports should consider the construction guidelines issued and value for money.
He gave the order here yesterday when opening the Tanzania Teachers Service Commission (TSC) workers council’s meeting, whereas he showered praises on President Samia Suluhu Hassan for her initiative of constructing 15,000 more classrooms to improve learning environment and control spread of the Covid-19.
The sentiments were also shared by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Proessor Riziki Shemdoe, adding that the next step would be assessing the value for money on the classrooms construction project.
Following the construction of more classrooms, all students selected to join Form One this year have not missed classes over lack of classrooms, thanks to Covid-19 relief funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Statistics for pupils enrolment in pre-primary education in public schools show that a total of 1,363,834 students have been enrolled this year, of which 676,028 are boys and 687,806 are girls, compared to the previous year, whereby 1,198,564 students were enrolled (604,995 being boys and 593,569 girls).
The data further shows that 1,581,823 students were enrolled for Standard One thi year (788,620 boys and 793,203 girls) compared to 1,549,279 students enrolled last year. In secondary education, at least 907,803 students are expected to start Form One this month.
More than a fortnight ago, the government announced that the construction of the planned 15,000 classrooms was 95 per cent complete in all regions of Tanzania Mainland and that only a few regions were lagging behind due to various challenges, including availability of raw materials, allocation of plots for the project and changes in weather.
The Minister also told the TSC to enforce discipline, ethics, hard work and patriotism among teachers, so that they prepare well students academically and socially.
He vowed to work on the TSC challenges in areas such as improvement of laws and regulations as well as remunerations, among others.
On her part, TSC Executive Secretary, Ms Paulina Nkwama, said cases of teachers’ truancy topped the list of disciplinary bundle last year, whereas of the 1,795 cases, 931 were of absenteeism.
She said that last year, 14,949 teachers were employed and 126,346 were promoted, signalling that the government is committed towards improving teachers’ welfare.
For More News And Analysis About Tanzania Follow Africa-Press
