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By The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. The government has stopped upgrading technical colleges to university colleges as a move towards increasing the number of technicians and institutions offering technical training in the country.
The decision was revealed by Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda yesterday, during the third graduation ceremony at Arusha Technical College. He said there is a great demand for graduates from such institutions in the country.
“The government has made this decision so as to improve technical training and vocational education, science and technology, to meet demands for technicians in the country,” the PM said.
On the other hand, however, the Prime Minister noted that the government had allowed technical colleges to offer sustainability awards up to degree level without being converted into universities, so long as they meet standards set by the national council for technical education (Nacte). He said there are a lot of such colleges worldwide that have contributed greatly to the development of societies by increasing the number of technicians, thereby improving technical education.
He cited, as examples, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Korea Institute of Technology, Koforidua Polytechnic in Ghana and Indian Institutes of Technology. The PM noted that in order to improve technical education in the country, the government through Nacte, decided to register all technical colleges, adding that by June 2011, at least 240 colleges were already registered.
“ Nevertheless out of these, only 39 colleges, equivalent to 16 per cent of all colleges offer engineering courses to degree level . Out of these, government institutions are not more than six which is still not enough compared to demand,” he pointed out.
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