Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Tanzania Institute for Education (TIE) has launched a free online library service, geared towards assisting students in the country to easily obtain learning materials, especially for those who lack access to physical libraries.
TIE Director General, Dr Aneth Komba revealed this yesterday in Dar es Salaam while releasing a report on the implementation of the institute’s activities and the direction of implementation of the 2022–2023 budget.
Dr Komba stated that the library has all of the required textbooks as well as a wealth of supplemental materials that blind and visually impaired students can also access through TIE’s website, www.tie.go.tz.
According to her, the library has been made user-friendly for blind and visually impaired students so that they can utilize it without any problems using assistive devices.
“With this library, every reader or student can learn at their own pace and do not have to worry about not having access to the required resources needed to learn, since a digital library is always available and easily accessible through any mobile device such as tablets, smartphones or laptop,” she said.
She added that TIE, working with UNICEF-Tanzania, has reached a deal with the mobile service provider Airtel Tanzania, allowing users to access the library for free even if they do not have a package of internet bundle.
The TIE Director stated that the institution is still in talks with other mobile service providers to secure unrestricted access to the online library. “I’m requesting assistance in this area from other mobile companies. According to recent data, the library has 400–500 visitors each day on average,”.
In a related development, to improve the education sector, the Director General said TIE has conducted two major studies, including collaborating with the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and EdTech Hub to conduct research aimed at identifying cheap, accurate and sustainable ICT technology that will be useful in providing continuous training for teachers and improve the results of teaching and learning at the primary level for schools located in rural areas.
She further added that TIE in collaboration with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences has completed a study known as Seeing is Learning.
The results of this research have led to the need to prepare a module for providing on-the-job training to teachers to increase their competence in identifying, examining and providing suitable interventions for students with vision challenges in learning from primary to secondary education, adding that a total of 82.6m/- has been allocated to execute the exercise.
Regarding the curricula review, she said they have so far received and are working on opinions from various quarters, most of which, she said, were perfect and were in tandem with current global technological advancement which promotes skill-based education.
Dr Komba said that they have reached more than 103,210 stakeholders, including the Children’s Council, religious leaders and heads of schools countrywide.
For More News And Analysis About Tanzania Follow Africa-Press
