There is still some room to read

Tanzania like most developing countries still has a long way to go when it comes to literacy. Studies show that there are 22 per cent of its citizens who cannot read and write.

According to Peter Mwakabale, the Director of Room to Read, this affects several services and general communication. He said this during the commemoration of the World Reading Day while discussing with education stakeholders on why the nation is still illiterate.

Mr Mwakabale said Tanzanians have to ask tough questions on why in the 70s and 80s many people were litrate as opposed to now when there ius advancing technology and more schools.

Speaking during the discussion Hakielimu executive director John Kallaghe said after independence Tanzania literacy started dipping because by then, the Government used to have different strategy and policy which ensured people knew how to read and write including the introduction of adult education.

“1986 only 10 per cent didn’t know how to read and write but we don’t know what happened by 1990 ,the data show the decrease of 67 per cent and now is 80 per cent,” he said.

SITUATION NOW

Another research done by Twaweza ,Egra and Haki Elimu show that the quality of education for the children is also declining.

Uwezo assessment show the number of the student who don’t know to how to read increasing.

Mr kallaghe said according to Twaweza research of 2014, 16 per cent of standard seven pupils didn’t know how to read and understand a story in grade two books while other research from Egra indicates that 40 per cent of children cannot read fluently.

The World Bank research of 2015 shows that ten children of grade three didn’t know how to read grade two story books.

Apart from that, women score on reading, writing and calculating stand at 36 per cent more than males who have 20.4 per cent.

Mr Kallaghe said if the government wants to improve education system and eliminate literate to zero per cent by 2030 it must deal with the children who are out of school.

Challenges

According to the UNESCO data, about 2 million children are not in school while Twaweza indicate that 41 per cent students who are in the age of studying secondary school are out of school and the assessment show that 20 per cent of them do not know how to read and write .

Another challenge is teaching and learning environment which according to the research done in 2014-15 shows teachers absenteeismstanding at 14 per cent.

However, 37 per cent of the teachers who were in school were still not going to classrooms while 12 per cent who are in the school didn’t use their time on teaching.

The stakeholders alos decried littlebudget set aside for the programme of read and write. The level of budget development and recurrent expenditure is very little not very large 60/40 per cent 2016.

The issue of adult education not being prioritized as in the past where it reached 90 per cent of people.

Mr Lukas Mkonongwa from Dar es Salaam College of Education pointed out that having many teachers who do not have the skills to teach reading, counting and writing makes it even worse for learners.

Many stakeholders stated that good working environment for teachers including paying good salaries, and other benefit they deserve will make them teach their students.

“Parents monitoring the progress of their children to know their limitations, while reading would be beneficial,” Mr Nkonongwa said.

Another problem is that the number of students in classroom overhelms most teachers.

About 70 per cent of the schools have libraries making it difficult for children to develop reading culture.

In view of this, the stakeholders said the education system was still a challenge in the country therefore more efforts are needed to ensure that more resources are directed to education.

Another thing is knowledge capacities of teachers; many of them don’t know how to teach using different techniques.

There is a need to solve the problem of children out of school and increase resources like books, and other education resources. There is also a need to address all the mentioned challenges to ensure the country achieve its education goals.

Teaching environment, including equipment, salaries of teachers and staff also

To cooperate in order to reach 2030 with O reading

You’ve been very expect the schools we should expect from the community, children should receive care from the community, at school and at home.

Strategic deploy changes all at home especially now approach original word sounds letters make word

Strategic send home and community changes from this system to another

To use the media, meetings in schools

Enable teachers to fight these things iproperization -vitabu improvise, newspapers can eliminate the challenges of inventory. Classes including prays with many children, games will be shared reading.

Government

The government will eliminate illiteracy level to 0 per cent to school children by 2030 due to various efforts done by the government and education stakeholders so far.

The Minister Simba Chamwene ,of state president’s office said when officiating the international literacy day with theme reading the past writing the future by 2030 to eliminate to zero.

He said that so far the government has started reviewing curriculums that will match with the education system of Tanzania than it is at the moment whereby most schools use different syllabuses.

“To achieve this the government would ensure that publishers of education material prints books that match with culture of Tanzania, to certify that books that will be produced match with the reading curriculum” he said.

He said that since the foundation of education is to know how to read and write the government would make sure that every person who knows to read and write must be able to understand and to explain what has been read