CONSIDER CALL FOR REVIEW OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Prof Kitila Mkumbo’s appeal to President Samia Suluhu Hassan to appoint a commission to review Tanzania’s education system is apt. Noting that the current education system has not brought about the desired results – and that it is not enough to invest in educational infrastructure alone – the Investments Minister in the President’s Office recommended that more resources should be directed at transforming ‘education’ into skills and competencies that can effectively contribute to social, cultural, intellectual and economic development of the people generally.

For example, he said, the countrywide primary and secondary school teachers shortage currently stands at a relatively whopping 123,188. Yet the government had authorised employment of a relatively measly 7,000 new teachers.

Other experts have weighed in by saying that most African countries – Tanzania NOT exempted – also face the challenges of gender parity, teenage pregnancies, early marriages and sexual harassment in the education sector.

Other challenges are a lack of equity and access for all; youth employability and skills mismatch, as well as lack of enthusiasm in adopting and adapting to rapid technological changes and new teaching methodologies.

The experts also ask such pertinent questions as: Do children really learn in schools? Do they learn critical thinking? Do what they learn help build their skills and competencies?

It will be recalled that the Presidential Commission on Education formed in 1981, also known as the Makweta Commission, released one of the most acclaimed reports on education in Tanzania.

The 1982 report became a very crucial factor for children’s welfare and general societal development.

We sincerely hope that President Hassan will give Prof Mkumbo’s advice due consideration and – for starters – appoint a commission of experts from a broad sectoral spectrum that would set matters right in the nation’s education system.

FRESH APPEAL ON NILE BASIN APT

The 11 Nile riparian countries commemorated the 16th Nile Day last Tuesday in recognition of the Nile Basin Initiative. The Initiative (NBI) was launched in February 1999 with support of development partners – led by the World Bank – as a “partnership among the Nile riparian states, seeking to develop the river in cooperation; share the resulting socioeconomic development benefits, and promote regional peace and security”.

More than 300m people depend on the Nile River water for economic activities, including irrigation farming, fishing and transportation. This also means that the increasing population and human socioeconomic development activities – many of which result in the discharge of industrial and other effluents – are a great threat to the 6,695km-long-river.

But, environmental pollution is not NBI’s only challenge. As we reported in these pages yesterday, another “curse” have been disputes over water use involving some riparian countries, which threaten peace and stability in the basin.

A living example of this is Ethiopia’s construction of the 5,000MW Grand Renaissance hydroelectric station, viewed as threatening availability of the water resource to Sudan and Egypt downriver. All the riparian countries along the Nile should exercise utmost diligence in sharing the waters peaceably, equitably.