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By Daniel Msangya
The Citizen Correspondent
Dodoma. The Government will spend over Sh18.4 billion to make desks for primary schools, being part of funds secured from radar compensation. The deputy minister for Regional Administrative and Local Government (RALG - Prime Minister’s Office), Mr Kassim Majaliwa, said this when answering a supplementary question from Ms Martha Mlata, (Special Seats CCM). She had asked the government to engage the Prisons, National Service (JKT) and Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) in making the desks using funds secured from the radar compensation.
Last year the Department for International Development (DfID) and the Tanzanian government were involved in drawing up plans on how to spend the payment from BAE. They particularly planned expenditure on education, particularly textbooks, desks and teachers' accommodation. But six months later no money was paid, and the Tanzania sent a delegation to meet Mr Andrew Mitchell, the BAE development secretary of the legal team, in search of answers.
The government later announced that it would receive the money, insisting that it should be paid for education purposes through Tanzanian government channels as had been planned.The MP for Mpwapwa (CCM), Mr George Simbachawene, interrupted with another supplementary question urging the government to come up with a permanent solution and strategic plan to solve the acute shortage of desks in primary schools.
The minister for Regional Administrative and Local Government, Mr George Mkuchika, admitted: “It is a big challenge to solve the acute shortage of desks in both primary and secondary schools.” He thus called on the people to participate fully by contributing to development plans set by the government.
He said the ministry had embarked on a national strategic plan and so far prepared a circular which will be signed by the Prime Minister and circulated in the country. He explained that the government, through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, would support the plan by allocating enough funds this year. He called it the year for finishing the acute shortage of desks in schools.
However, Mr Mkuchika said primary schools remain under village government administrations while secondary schools at ward level were under the community administered by the Ward Development Council. Thus they required the people to contribute to their development projects, he said. In the basic question, Mr Vincent Joseph Nyerere (Musoma Urban, Chadema) asked the government to issue special permission for harvesting timber from forest reserves for making school desks.
Mr Majaliwa said the proposal was accepted, but should go through legal procedures under district councils and local authorities owning the forests.
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