Mkuranga. A primary school in Tanzania’s coastal Pwani Region is seeking 25 additional classrooms to ease severe overcrowding after its enrolment reached 3,640 pupils, with only 19 classrooms currently available for lessons.
Kisemvule Primary School in Mkuranga District has 20 classrooms, but one is unusable because of its poor condition, leaving pupils to share the remaining 19 rooms.
The shortage has also created a significant deficit of desks. The school has only 420, forcing some pupils to sit on the floor during lessons.
Headteacher Aisha Suleiman said the high number of pupils had made it difficult for the school to provide a conducive learning environment.
“Sometimes a single classroom has more than 45 children,” she said.
Ms Suleiman said the shortage had also affected the administration of examinations, forcing the school to use different venues when the available classrooms could not accommodate all pupils.
The challenge comes as the Government and development partners continue efforts to improve education infrastructure. The latest intervention came from Knauf Gypsum Tanzania Limited, which constructed a new classroom at the school.
The classroom, handed over on Thursday, was built at a cost of Sh52 million and equipped with more than 15 desks, as well as three tables and chairs for teachers.
For pupils, however, the new classroom provides only partial relief amid the wider infrastructure shortage.
Standard Six pupil Ishacka Juma said some pupils were forced to sit on the floor when desks were unavailable, making it difficult for them to concentrate on their studies.
“When we sit on the floor, our uniforms become dirty and it makes learning uncomfortable,” he said.
Another Standard Six pupil, Mariam Salum, appealed to other development partners to support the Government in addressing the school’s infrastructure needs.
She also called for the establishment of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) classroom to enable pupils to acquire digital skills.
“This will help us learn technology, which is now an important tool for economic development,” she said.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, Knauf Gypsum Tanzania legal and external government relations manager Flora Erasto said the company’s support was intended to complement efforts to improve the welfare of communities around its operations.
“We want business development in the Pwani region to go hand in hand with the development of surrounding communities. Education is one of the areas we consider important to support,” she said.
Ms Erasto said the company had previously supported Kisemvule Primary School, including renovating a classroom three years ago and donating desks two years ago.
Acting Mkuranga District Council primary education officer Juma Sultan said the Government had continued investing in education infrastructure, increasing the number of classrooms at the school over the years.
However, he said rising enrolment had continued to increase demand for additional facilities.
Mr Sultan said the school needed at least 25 more classrooms to adequately address the shortage.
“We are calling on more development partners to join the Government’s efforts. Additional classrooms will help reduce congestion and improve the learning environment for children,” he said.
The new classroom is expected to ease some of the pressure at Kisemvule, but the school still faces a substantial infrastructure gap as it struggles to accommodate its growing pupil population.
