Stakeholders propose sweeping changes in the education policy

Dar es Salaam. Some of the proposals by education stakeholders in the ongoing education policy review process were revealed by the government yesterday.

The revealed proposals for consideration by the Ministry of Education include making basic and compulsory education up to Form Four, while Standard Seven to be scrapped so that primary school pupils would switch to secondary education after completion of Standard Six.

Speaking during the 7th International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Dar as Salaam (UDSM) yesterday, Mr Omary Kipanga, who is the deputy minister for Education noted that the new policy would be expected to support President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s key priorities for Tanzania.

He noted that the ministry was going on with the review of the Education and Training Policy of 2014 and that there were several proposals that have already been collected and their analysis was underway.

“Some propose that basic education should end at Standard Six and that there should be two main options thereafter--skills-based learning and that of pure academics,” Mr Kipanga revealed.

According to him, some proposals suggested that in the Policy, there should be no exams in Standard Six as the situation is currently, but only assessments based on the course studied by the student.

“The President’s goal is to ensure that at whatever level a young person achieves in education, he or she will be able to have skills that will enable him or her to either get employed or go for self-employment,” he said.

After Form Four, he noted, those from the skills option would decide whether to continue with Form Five and Six or not.

“We need all who complete the various levels of education to be able go to for self-employment,” he explained.

He emphasized that the goal was to also make students graduate from compulsory education at an age that they could undertake some form of income generating work effectively.

“We continue collecting proposals from stakeholders and when we reach an agreement we will make it clear to all Tanzanians on the way forward,” said Mr Kipanga.

The policy review was among the very first directives issued in 2021 by President Hassan to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The goal was to answer many questions and concerns about the decline in the quality of education in the country by various education stakeholders as well as employers.

For a long time now, graduates from universities have been under the microscope due to their lack of capacity to undertake self-employment and demonstration of poor working skills, a cry that prompted President Hassan to issue directives to the ministry to review the Education and Training Policy of 2014, Education Act of 1978 along with education curricula at the lower and higher levels of education in the country.

The process of finding solutions to these challenges accelerated a year ago through a series of opinion collection on the existing education policy and suggestions from various education stakeholders.