Josephine Christopher is a senior business journalist for The Citizen and Mwananchi newspapers
Mwananchi Communications Limitted
Dar es Salaam. An 11-year-old innovator has challenged Tanzania’s education system to stop waiting until children reach university to cultivate their problem-solving potential.
Speaking at the opening of Innovation Week Tanzania 2026 on Monday, August 31, 2026, founder and chief executive visionary of Small Hands, Big Change, Ms Akoth Kidew, criticized learning systems that prioritize rote memorization over creative problem-solving.
“If we spend 12 years training a child to remember the answer someone else already got, why are we surprised when she cannot invent an answer nobody has even known yet?” asked Ms Kidew.
She argued that genuine innovation stems from encouraging children to ask questions, experiment, make mistakes, and try again.
To foster an inventive mindset early, Ms Kidew called for primary school innovation challenges, community problem-solving classes, mentorship programmes, and safe experimental spaces for young learners.
She further warned that digital divide barriers, specifically unequal access to electricity, computers, and technology, threaten to exclude many Tanzanian children from becoming future innovators.
