Train More Teachers

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

23 May 2011

editorial

Reports showing that a region with a requirement of 3,470 teachers has been provided with only 1,344 is disheartening, for that is equivalent to a shortage of more than 50 per cent!

We are talking about Dodoma Region where, of the 18,121 students who sat their final national exams last year, 11, 326 failed.

Which is no wonder, for without teachers, pre-high school students can’t learn much. It is a great pity that while the whole world is embracing science and technology, we put our children in schools where they hardly learn anything.

According to the acting Dodoma regional education officer, 30 per cent of students who registered for the 2008 national examinations did not turn up for the papers.

Most likely, a good number of the no-show candidates considered it a waste of time to sit the exams, since they had not been prepared for them in the first place.Our concern is that the damning report on the Dodoma education situation could be a mere tip of the iceberg.

Boasting that 70 per cent of our children who pass their national primary exams join secondary school is not good enough. Our young should join secondary school to gain quality education. That means, among other things, having for them enough and qualified teachers. The government has no choice but to train more teachers.

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