How we prevailed in construction of ward schools: Retired President Jakaya Kikwete

Dodoma. Perseverance is all one needs to turn a dream into reality, Retired President Jakaya Kikwete said at the weekend, when detailing the ups and downs that his administration went through when it embarked on the construction of Ward secondary schools.

The schools remain one of several major achievements of Mr Kikwete’s administration even as the project also attracted criticism from some stakeholders.

From shortage of teachers to learning materials, critics were never short of words to criticise President Kikwete’s move to build a secondary school in each and every administrative Ward.

Dspite the challenges, the fact remained that the schools provide another chance for thousands of Tanzanian children who would otherwise have ended up loitering after missing the chance to proceed to secondary school.

Mr Kikwete recounted this as he graced a fund-raising event to raise money for the construction of an investment building for the Central Tanganyika Diocese of the Anglican Church.

He commended the diocese for daring to Think Big, narrating why his administration embarked on the ‘Secondary School for Every Ward’ project.

He said during his tenure at State House, it was only six percent of pupils who had been successful in their final primary school examination who were actually selected to join secondary schooling.

“That was why we decided to share the responsibility of building the schools with parents. The response was impressive. We promised to give iron sheets but in some cases, the councils (district and municipal) were weak and residents ended up completing everything on their own,” he said.

He recalled an event where he was invited to launch a ward secondary school in Rombo in Kilimanjaro and in Lushoto in Tanga where residents there told him that they would complete everything on their own provided that the government promises to furnish the schools with teachers.

“At one point, Margaret Sitta, the then education minister, came to me and said the pace (at which residents were building schools) was too fast and that the government couldn’t cope due to a lack of teachers. I said I have heard you loud and clear,” he said.

The response he gave to his minister, was that if the government was to tell its people go slow on the ward schools building agenda, they would lose the excitement and focus their energies on other projects.

“I said we must continue… It was impossible for us to continue having a country that’s full of primary school leavers,” he said.

During that time, all public colleges would produce only about 500 teachers at Diploma level but at that time, a total of 3,000 secondary schools had been built.

“We held discussions with private colleges including St John’s University [which is owned by the Anglican Church] and asked them to establish education faculties. It helped and we were able to employ up to 18,000 teachers through the program,” the immediate-past President said.

That, he said, persisted and to-date, the number of graduate social science teachers was too high that some have been deployed to reach in primary schools.

At one point, he said, a newspaper headline read: ‘Schools with no education’, saying that was very true, noting however that they had to start from somewhere.

He said it was the urge to dare and insistence that finally saw the country currently has thousands of tar marked road, up from only three [roads of such a status] when Tanzania attained independence.

Similarly, the number of engineers has risen from only three at independence to 18,000.

Bishop Dickson Chilongani of Central Tanganyika Diocese of the Anglican Church said they envision to build a two-storey investment building that will have several business slots and an auditorium with a capacity of accommodating 400 people.

A total of Sh5.82 billion will be spent on the project, said Dr Chilongani, noting that so far, they were looking for Sh3.69 billion.

A total of Sh296.27 million was raised from the fund-raising event.