Fear as govt goes after fake certificates

Dodoma. Some teachers from public primary and secondary schools across the country have vanished from their workplaces for fear of the government’s planned crackdown on fake or stolen academic certificates, a parliamentary committee was told in Dodoma yesterday.

This has led to teacher shortages in some parts of the country. It is also claimed that the country’s public education sector has for years been served by the majority of half-baked teachers with fake academic certificates.

Speaking without giving any figures, the deputy Minister in the ministry of State (Regional Administration, Local Government, Public Service and Good Governance), Mr Selemani Jafo, told the Parliamentary Committee on Public Administration and Local Government that the move had been attributed to dwindling performance in the education sector.

He was speaking, when the committee received a special presentation report on the implementation of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) from June to October, this year. Mr Jafo noted that the country’s public education sector faced an acute shortage of teachers, especially for science subjects.

He explained that, there was only 85,000 secondary teachers, whereby 21, 4751 teachers served in primary schools countrywide. “Our plan is to at least recruit 35,000 fresh teachers, but this will depend on President John Magufuli’s blessing,” he said. On teachers’ plight of mounting salary arrears, Mr Jafo said the government had been settling teachers arrears since 2011. He said in 2011/12 fiscal year, the government disbursed Sh19 billion, but only Sh5.6 billion was dished out in 2012/13, and that Sh21.3 billion was spend on debts in the 2013/14 fiscal year. He added, however, that in 2015/16 the government dished out 15.2 billion.

“We will unleash at least Sh26 billion for repaying teachers’ arrears,” he noted.

Responding after TSC secretary Winifrida Rutaindurwa presented the TSC’s report he said most members of the committee underscored the need for the amendments of laws used to form the vital commission. “As per its current status, the TSC has no jurisdiction over district executive directors and even headmasters in case of any misconduct. But we have heard of and witnessed teachers’ bad habits,” said John Lubeleje (Mpwapwa-CCM).

He said although some teachers mistreated students, regulations didn’t give the TSC powers to deal with such a matter. For her part, Ms Magreth Sitta stressed a need for the committee to present in Parliament amendments of the law used to create the TSC to enable it to operate professionally and effectively.