AfricaPress-Tanzania: GOVERNMENT will build 1,026 secondary schools in the country of which 26 will have boarding facilities.
Winding up the second meeting of the 12th Parliament in Dodoma in Dodoma on Saturday, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said 26 boarding schools will be built in each region while 1,000 day schools will be built in 718 wards.
The boarding schools – to be built in three phases — will have the capacity to accommodate between 1,000 and 1,500 students. Day schools, each with the capacity to accommodate 400 students, will be built under Secondary Education Quality Improvement Programme (SEQUIP).
The progamme is expected to be implemented in five years ((2020/2021 to 2025/2026). According to Premier Majaliwa, the World Bank (WB) has issued a loan amounting to USD 500 million (1.2tri/-) to finance the programme.
The programme will to a great extent solve education infrastructure shortages upon completion, Mr Majaliwa said. He said that the new day schools will be built in wards that have no such facilities and specifically in areas with a big number of students.
“I call upon local government leaders to fully supervise this programme so that the government achieves the desired goals,” Mr Majaliwa explained. Speaking on skills development for youth, the Prime Minister said between July 2020 and January 2021, a total of 10,178 youth attended various skills development sessions before being assessed by the Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA).
The assessment found out that 9,736 youth had qualified and were issued with VETA certificates. The certificates enable youth to be recognised, including enabling them to upgrade their skills and employ themselves if they fail to secure employment elsewhere.
The skills acquired are in the fields of carpentry, masonry, welding, plumbing, mechanical and electrical engineering, panel beating, cookery and tailoring.
Mr Majaliwa said 36 youth have been dispatched to Israel under the sponsorship of the government to study modern farming
