OPINION: Why regional commissioners should pull up their socks
If I’m asked to make predictions on what will happen in December, any December, one of sure things which I will put forward is that the nation is going to have several thousand Standard Seven finalists, who have passed their final examinations, but they will not join to secondary school simply because there are no enough classrooms.
I am going to do that because over years this has become a norm in our country. Year in year out, when the standard seven results are announced, expect to be told how many students will miss joining Form One because there are no classes.
Last year, a total of 133,747 pupils, equivalent to 18.24 pupils of who passed their standard seven examinations, were not selected to join form one because of shortage of classrooms. This year, some 173,636 pupils who have passed their final primary school examinations, will not join Form One because of the same reason. That being the case they have not even been selected for secondary education.
We have also been old that 58,699 pupils who have passed their Standard Seven examinations will have to wait while classrooms are being constructed to accommodate them.
Announcing the results in Dodoma recently, the Minister of State responsible for Regional Administration and Local Government, Mr Selemani Jafo, instructed regional commissioners to make sure that they quicken the pace of classrooms construction so as to enable those who have passed their examinations and selected to join Form One, get the chance to begin those sturdies soon.
Making similar announcement last year, Mr Jafo listed regions with shortage of classrooms as Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa, Kagera, Kigoma, Lindi, Mara, Mbeya, Coast, Rukwa, Tabora, Tanga, Manyara, Shinyanga, Katavi, Njombe and Simiyu. This is more than half of all the regions in the country.
This year the problem is prevalent in Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Iringa, Kigoma, Lindi, Manyara, Mara, Mbeya, Coast, Simiyu, Rukwa, Songwe and Tanga. Only five regions are missing from last year’s list. This pace is not promising.
It is a shame that a country which is busy building an industrialised economy can speak of shortage of classrooms for students who have passed their examinations.
If we are indeed serious in making Tanzania a middle income economy by 2025, we are supposed to be in a state where we have many classrooms that the number of students who are supposed to use them.
It is a shame that every end of the year a responsible minister can remind regional commissioners to build more classrooms for pupils who have excelled in their examinations.
For entire year, these regional commissioners know the number of Standard Seven pupils in their regions.
They know the projection of pass rate. This is enough to make them project how many classes will be needed to accommodate Standard Seven leavers who have done well in their examinations and selected for secondary education.
Why do they, therefore, fail to make and execute plans which will make sure that at the end of every year there are enough classes for form one students?
This failure by the regional commissioners discourages some primary school pupils. Some pupils might decide not to put enough efforts in their studies because they know that even if they pass there is great chance that they will not get a an opportunity to join form one because of shortage of classes or they will have to wait for weeks while classes are being built.
I don’t think there is an excuse on the part of regional commissioners, on why they cannot build enough classes for the form one students.
They have whole year to do that.
Worse enough the trend has been going on for years now. It is time the regional commissioner change because what they are doing is retarding the country efforts to industrialise and build a middle income economy.
Mr Nyanje is media consultant based in Dar es Salaam
