UK minister on how Tanzania can improve education

The United Kingdom’s Minister for Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, Vicky Ford, sat down for a one-on-one interview with The Citizen’s managing editor, Mpoki Thomson, to talk about Tanzania’s education sector, climate change and UK investments in the country. The interview was transcribed by Jacob Mosenda. Read on...

Question: What are your priorities for Africa?

Answer: Our relationship with Africa is built on the foundation of partnerships based on countries that love freedom and democracy. Tanzania is very much a free and democratic country; people are free to choose their own leaders, which means the country is more peaceful and more prosperous.

Trade and investments are other areas of cooperation. We work to unlock opportunities for UK investment and UK traders. We have seen quite a number of companies who are already investing in Tanzania who want to do more and have been encouraged by the government based on stability trade and investment stability.

The third key area, which is also a risk is the issue to do with security and defence.

This concerns the rest of the world and how it affects the delivery of the promises that were made in Glasgow at the COP26 conference that was geared to tackle climate change.

So a big priority is to work with our partner countries in Africa to help tackle climate change, mitigate against the risks and also deliver cleaner green energy in the future.

The fourth one, which is absolutely at the heart of everything, is empowering women and girls. The country will never deliver on its full potential if it doesn’t unlock the full potential of the population, which includes women and girls.

What informed your decision to launch an innovative education project for primary education in Tanzania?

The project is all about quality education, we have been partnering with Tanzania for many decades. It is government-led and aims at ensuring provision of inclusive education so that all children (girls and boys) and those who live in hard to reach areas and children with disabilities can access quality education.

How can Tanzania make better use of Vocational and Training Education to encourage self-employment and practical skills?

Before one gets to the level of technical education it is still really important to get the basics of mathematics and the basics of reading to help you unlock whatever skill job you might want to do; so, it’s important to ensure that children get to know the basics of math and language early on.

One thing that the experts here have been telling me about is that sometimes the transition from primary to secondary would mean that those who don’t have the basic understanding would face a difficult time carrying on academically.

So it is really important that all kids get that basic key skills which will help them get more jobs available.

There are billions of shillings that are being poured into the education sector. However, we are not seeing tangible results and some people have voiced their concern that maybe development partners should channel some of these funds elsewhere. What’s your take on that?

There is a need for quality education. Tanzania’s Ministry of Education should look at what is working and what is not working and try to come up with the best practice in different schools across the country.

There also needs to be more training and supporting teachers so that students can get a better education.

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When I visited Serengeti Breweries Ltd, I met with women who are fantastic scientists who work in the company in the quality control department and women engineers who work there as well.

I think the key thing here is to bring more investments into this country to create those new jobs. What I have found uplifting since I came to Tanzania is hearing businesses say they want to bring more money to this country, they see it as an opportunity for them to invest.

Tanzania is digitising its education; however, there is still a massive gap in terms of access to digital academic tools, especially for children in hard-to-reach areas. How can this digital divide be addressed?

One of the important things is to see how to get education to all students who are in hard to reach areas and that is precisely why we (The UK) are putting a six-year programme ‘Shule Bora’ to work with the government to help spread that across the country.

What is being done to boost UK investments in Tanzania, and collaboration with the government and private sector?

Most of what I’m hearing from different companies operating in Tanzania is that now there is a conducive environment for doing business and that the government is encouraging job creation by attracting more investors.

The UK has two significant government bodies that can help such investment to happen; first is the organization with the international investment, which is our own investment development arm which we have empowered with new tools to invest, particularly in the infrastructure projects, bringing in honest reliable UK partners to invest.

We have another significant opportunity for UK expo finance which can come in and give expo credit guarantees to businesses.

Interestingly about the expo is that only 20 percent of the money comes from the UK, 80 percent comes from local partners. So when UK finance can support investment here in Tanzania, it can support local businesses, investment and jobs.

Climate change is a big agenda under President Samia Suluhu Hassan; how is the UK helping Tanzania in its efforts to tackle the adverse impact of climate change?

It is a very significant issue; one of the areas where Tanzania could benefit is being able to unlock this huge private sector funding from companies that want to come to invest and support protecting forests and in improving modern agriculture.

We can improve the performance of the small farmers by investing in better quality agriculture as well as helping protect and grow trees to recapture the forests.