Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA is set to receive 425-million US dollars (about 985bn/-) from the World Bank, to finance a five-year project dubbed ‘Higher Education for Economic Transformation.’
Speaking to reporters on a media tour organised by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Deputy Permanent Secretary Prof James Mdoe said the project agreement will be signed in Dar es Salaam on Thursday by the Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Joyce Ndalichako and the WB representative.
Prof Mdoe said the project is intended to set a landmark in higher education infrastructures, especially in the area of technological and economic transformation.
Among the components contained in the agreement, is injection of 100bn/- for completion of key infrastructures for the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere University of Agriculture and Technology in Musoma.
“This project aimed at having in place the needed infrastructures to accommodate the increasing number of students joining public universities and higher learning institutions.
“Between 70 and 80 per cent of the World Bank project will cater for improved infrastructures of public universities and higher learning institutions,” said Prof Mdoe.
He said to start with, 100bn/- will be injected for Mwalimu Julius Nyerere University of Agriculture and Technology, so that it becomes fully fledged operational in the next academic year.
Moreover, he said, other beneficiaries of the project are Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), Higher Educations Students’ Loans Board (HESLB) and Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH).
The project will also cater for retooling of teachers, so that they cope with the changing technological patterns. This, he said will help to impart the students with the needed skills to meet the market demands.
He said a special budget will also be set aside for lecturers to undergo further studies, whereas a total of 623 lecturers have been listed for training in Master’s degree and PhD in the coming five years.
He said the infrastructures which will be covered are lecture halls, hostels, laboratories, libraries and administration blocks in 12 public universities and seven higher learning institutions.
The project, he said, will increase the number of students that will be enrolled in universities and higher learning institutions thus comply with the ruling party CCM, 2020 election manifesto.
The set-up of the needed infrastructures are necessitated by the fact that the students who are beneficiaries of free education policy will be ripe for recruitment for higher education in the coming five years, thus, they expect a boom in the number of entries.
He expressed the government commitment to ensure there are in place the needed infrastructures for conducive learning and teaching environment ultimately have in place graduates with the higher qualities.
With availability of resources, said Prof Mdoe, the government from time to time continues to address the challenges especially of human resources as they project to have a vibrant education sector that meets needs of all sectors.
The WB has been supporting various other education programmes and projects such as Education Programme for Results, amounting 515m US dollars (about 1.2tri/-) aimed at improving students learning outcomes at primary and lower secondary education levels.
Another project is Secondary Education Quality Improvement Programme (SEQUIP), which aims at increasing access to secondary education, providing a responsive learning environment for girls and improving completion of quality education for girls and boys.
SEQUIP programme caters for construction of 26 modern secondary schools, each will accommodate 1,500 girl students, who pursue science subjects. The schools will be built in each region in the Mainland.
The WB also supports the School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Project which focuses at increasing access to rural water supply and sanitation services in 86 districts and strengthens the capacity of selected sector institutions to sustain service delivery.
Through the project, she said, 9,712 drop holes, 911 water tanks and hand washing facilities in 602 primary schools have been constructed to improve sanitation and hygiene facilities.
Other projects include Education and Skills for Productive Jobs, East and Southern Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence and East Africa skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project.
