Remembering Magufuli’s effect on the education sector
Stakeholders in the education sector have not been left behind in mourning the death of former President John Magufuli on March 17 this year - based on his outstanding contribution to the sector.
It is during his leadership that all school-age children, regardless of their economic status, had the opportunity to be enrolled in schools free of school fees.
The fallen president has left an indelible mark in the lives of many. He will always remain in the hearts of 52-year old Mwinjuma Ali and his family, whose lives he turned around for the better.
In 2015, Mwinjuma’s two children dropped out of school due to lack of school fees and other contributions. They turned to farming to earn money for school fees.
“I believe God brought John Magufuli for my family because I could not afford to pay for the education of my four children. When I heard him promise of free education in his campaigns in 2015, I knew he was a liberator,” explains the Mbagala resident.
In 2016, his children went back to school and studied without difficulty. Now his family is hopes for a better future when the two children complete school.
The father of four says he would like to see the remaining leaders keep on the pace that the late Magufuli started in a bid to transform the education sector.
The Minister of State in the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-LARG) Suleiman Jafo, said on Saturday that all the plans that Magufuli left behind unfulfilled would be implemented as one way of remembering his outstanding leadership.
“He has left us with a big task to build 1,000 schools in all the country’s 716 wards. I approved the budget for this in the recent parliamentary committee and so we are going to start construction soon,” said Jafo.
Free education policy
Provision of free basic education is among the marks that the late President will be remembered for. In his first term as President, Dr Magufuli implemented his pledge of waiving school fees and other contributions for both primary and secondary education. His government released Sh18 billion every month for all schools.
Implementation of this policy led to increased primary and secondary school enrollment. PO-LARG statistics show that in the first year of the implementation (2016), a total of 1,896,586 pupils were enrolled in standard one against the initial projection of 1,433,840 pupils. As a result, the monthly budget for the programme shot up to Sh23 billion.
In 2020, while dissolving the 11th parliament, President Magufuli said by February 2020, the government had already spent a cumulative total of Sh1.01 trillion in implementing the fee-free education policy.
He said with the implementation of the policy, the enrolment of standard one pupils increased from an average of one million in 2015 to 1.6 million in 2020.
The number of secondary schools increased to 5,330 by 2020 from 4,708 recorded in 2015 making an increase of 622 schools, a move that experts believe has precipitated access to education for Tanzania’s children.
This also led to the increase of the number of form one to form four students to 2,185,037 in 2020 from 1,648,359 as recorded in 2015.
The late Magufuli said that the government took efforts to build new primary schools, with the number of learning facilities increasing from 16,899 in 2015 to 17,804 in 2020. This is an increase of 905 new schools at this period.
President Magufuli’s government also worked to address the shortage of desks after increasing the number to 8,095, 207 in 2020 from 3, 024,311 that were present in 2015.
However, despite the policy, some costs remained as many schools continued to collect fees from children and their families. This angered the late President, who in 2018 ordered the practice to stop immediately.
“It makes no sense for the government to waive school fees and yet teachers introduce contributions that poor parents can’t afford to pay for their children. I don’t want to hear that a pupil or student is dismissed over failure to contribute…,” he added.
Following Covid-19 school closures, Tanzania became the first country in East Africa to reopen schools after the President ordered the resumption of classes despite fears of some parents.
The move restored hope to students, especially those who were worried about the possibility of not doing their national exams last year.
“Had it not been for the late Magufuli, I probably would not have been able to take my national exam in 2020. Maybe I would have had to repeat the class, which would have hindered my dreams,” explains Isaac Juma, a first-year student at Mzumbe University.
Juma believes that Magufuli’s stance was what saved their education progress. If he were another leader, he would have followed the course of other nations and postponed the academic year, which would have affected parents and the education sector as a whole.
“We continued to study with caution and today we are making further educational progress. Our fellows in Kenyan are just starting the exams on strict terms, while the lower grade students are still waiting. In fact, we will always remember our President JPM,” says Juma.
