THE Minister of State, President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government), Selemani Jafo has said the government is constructing 1,080 classrooms to reduce shortage of classes for pupils passing Standard Seven examinations.
The minister revealed this when he was responding to a supplementary question by Special Seats legislator, Susan Lyimo (CHADEMA), who expressed her dismay over shortage of classes in secondary schools.
“The minister has released the statistics here, that in 2018, about 133,000pupils passed their examinations but they could not be selected to join secondary education because of shortage of classrooms, equally last year 58,000 could not be selected because there were no enough classes…why shouldn’t the government put up projections and a strategic plan to have enough classes as more pupils continue passing every year,’’ she queried.
In his response, Mr Jafo said the government was doing its best to ensure that all pupils who passed their examinations proceed with their education.
According to him, about 759,000 pupils who passed their examination, thus adding the passing level by 92 per cent had been selected during the first phase to join several secondary schools, and the remaining 58,000 will be continuing with their secondary education because the government was in the final stages of accomplishing the ongoing construction of classes.
“Currently, there is an ongoing project to wind up the construction of 1,080 classes, and I want to assure all Tanzanians that whenever you see the passing rate increasing, this is a clear indication that the investment by the government in the education sector is yielding positive results,’’ he said.
Earlier in her main question, Special Seats MP, Ruth Mollel (CHADEMA) said at Vikindu Primary School in Mkuranga District, teachers are overwhelmed by the number of pupils, giving an example of standard one and two classes which had 300 pupils.
