CANADA has commended the government of Tanzanian for making great strides in implementing Universal Primary Education (UPE) and its further impact on improving children’s educational access in the country.
Fielding questions from reporters yesterday, Minister – Counsellor (Development) and Cooperation from the High Commission of Canada Gwen Walmsley praised the country for its zeal to improve the quality of education through provision of free education.
“It is worth noting that Tanzania recognises the crucial role education plays in the overall development of its people,” noted the Canadian official on the sidelines of the Teacher Education Support Project (TESP) stock-taking and visioning meeting held yesterday.
Similarly, Ms Walmsley underscored the importance of imparting prerequisite knowledge and skills to teachers with a view to remaining relevant to the TESP.
She further noted that the Canadian government had committed 8bn/- as a technical assistance to the Tanzanian government in implementing the five-year project.
Earlier, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Dr Leonard Akwilapo, said the project had seen the provision of in-service professional development training in strengthening mathematics pedagogical skills to 776 teachers from 20 low performing councils.
Similarly, 1,048 tutors have received professional development training on their subjects of specialisation which are Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Early Grades Education, Geography, History and ICT integration in teaching and learning.
Regarding improving teaching and learning at teachers’ colleges, Dr Akwilapo pointed out that the ministry had procured and supplied 780 units of desktop computers and uninterruptible power supply (UPS), 43 laptop computers and some books for both academic and professional subjects which are taught at teachers’ colleges.
“The upgrading of teacher education is very crucial. Quality education starts with quality training…the project is a real answer to challenges facing teacher education in this particular project,” he added.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology TESP Coordinator Anthony Chonya told participants of the stocktaking and visioning meeting that at least 35 colleges had been connected to the National ICT Broadband Backbone to enable teachers keep abreast with TEPS.
Funded by Global Affairs Canada, the project seeks to improve basic education for girls and boys in Tanzania by improving the management of teacher education and teacher professional development.
