Africa-Press – Tanzania. PARLIAMENT has asked authorities dealing with regulations for the establishment of teachers’ professional board to meet education stakeholders, who are affected directly by the board before coming up with the said regulations.
The directive was issued by the Parliamentary subsidiary legislation Committee when presenting a report on the assessment of subsidiary laws that were presented in the august House on February 9th this year, during the second meeting of the 12th Parliament.
The new development comes barely two month after the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) had called for immediate suspension of the ongoing process for the establishment of a Teachers’ Professional Board, proposing that its responsibilities should be left under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) instead.
The call was announced at a news conference held in Dodoma by TTU President, Leah Ulaya, who said the responsibilities to be undertaken by the Teachers’ Professional Board were similar to those being undertaken by TSC.
According to her, in 2019, TTU was invited to offer views on the establishment of the board, but their views were never considered when parliament passed the new law for the establishment of the board.
“In fact, we unanimously rejected the enactment of the law after going through it and found out that the board aimed at oppressing teachers instead, of helping them,’’ she said.
According to Ms Ulaya, in April 2021, union members were invited by the Clerk of the National Assembly to meet the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation to give their views on the regulations for the establishment of the board.
“During this meeting, TTU stuck to their guns, rejecting the establishment of the new board, and instead we suggested that TSC be given more powers instead of establishing a board which will drain the economies of teachers in the country.”
On Monday when presenting views of the parliamentary committee on subsidiary legislation, the Committee Chairperson Jasson Rweikiza said all education stakeholders especially those, who were being affected directly by the teachers’ professional board should be invited to air their views before coming up with the regulations.
“Engaging stakeholders is key in drafting any law, so as to simplify its implementation, however, the committee noted with concern that the process to draft regulations for the teachers’ professional board did not engage stakeholders who are affected directly by the law,’’ he said.
The committee chairperson insisted that by not engaging stakeholders, the law was likely to be totally uncomfortable to them because drafting of the regulations did not consider their views.
