Government accused of neglecting education

Dodoma. The government was yesterday accused of neglecting education for over 50 plus years.

Plans outlined by the Education and Vocational Training minister, Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, when tabling the ministry’s 2015/16 budget yesterday did not help to appease MPs, who insisted that education in the country was in intensive care.

Dr Kawambwa asked Parliament to approve Sh989.55 billion, of which Sh510.87 bn is for recurrent expenditure and Sh478.67 billion for development.

The Opposition accused the government of failing to make education one of its priorities since independence.

Criticism ranged from policy to all other major functions including inspection, teachers management as well as financing.

But in his speech, Dr Kawambwa was upbeat, noting that the education sector which received high marks among sectors which were gauged under the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative.

He said that according to the one year BRN review report, the education docket was found to have accomplished its obligations by 81 per cent, being the only ministry which received high marks.

He outlined achievements which were recognised through the Presidential Delivery Bureau as ability by pupils to know how to write, read and count.

However, tabling alternative views, Education shadow minister, Ms Suzan Lyimo, said the government has only been rhetoric as far as the importance of education is concerned. She wondered how the ministry has been able to determine that education quality and standard has been picking up while the inspection unit in the ministry was as good as dead. “Available data shows that inspection was conducted to only 36 percent of education institutions. This means that 67 percent of primary and secondary schools were not inspected,” she said.

She said the government has failed to ensure that all pupils have desks while the country is endowed with abundant forest resources as well as prisoners who could have been used as manpower to produce the desks.

Social Services Committee chairperson Margaret Sitta said it was unfortunate that the government has neglected teachers’ affairs. She asked the minister to assure Parliament of the government plan to establish the Teachers Service Commission, as promised by President Jakaya Kikwete recently. Ms Sitta also said there was a need for the government to promote the inspection unit into a fully fledged agency in order to give education inspection deserving attention.

She wondered how the education sector was going to improve while the government was not giving the ministry all the money in accordance with budget allocations.

“Though in some aspects cash flow seems to be okay, but it should be noted that most of the development funds which were released are loans to students in higher learning institutions,” she said. Ms Sitta noted that apart from the loans, many development projects did not receive a single cent from the government, singling out Mzumbe University which was supposed to get Sh850 million for development activities but with only days to go before the 2014/15 budget expires, the university has not received a single cent.

She also noted that because the government did not send the allocated development budget, Sokoine University of Agriculture (Sua) found itself with a Sh1.2 billion debt from a contractor who constructed dormitories since 2009. “The contractor is now threatening to sue Sua,” she said.

Ms Sitta also criticised the decision to include the high education docket in the ministry of education as bad.

“As a result of this decision high education does not receive attention it deserves,” she said.

In his contribution, Dr Deogratias Ntukumazina (Ngara – CCM) called for restructuring of the education ministry noting that the way it is now does not reflect its importance.

Prof Kalikoyeka Kahigi (Bukombe – Chadema) blamed the government for neglecting teachers forcing many of them to engage in alternative activities to complement their income.

More parliament stories on pages 4 and 5