Education: Of the blame game and joke of the year

Human beings are fun creatures. If you haven’t discovered that yet, then look around you. Some people create history, while others strive the rest of their lives trying to make it. So many people are remembered for great deeds they have done in their lives that helped to change the face of the earth while others are remembered for wrong reasons.

Zeroing in on this country, we have so many people we consider heroes while others are villains. I can’t really come to mention names here but when it comes to our independence, the name of the Father of the Nation, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, arguably becomes the first for everyone who is well versed with the details of the struggle.

But, when it comes to education and every time I think of this sector, I am quickly reminded of a man who hit newspaper headlines for a controversial reason. I believe he qualifies to have his name written in the Guinness Book of Records. His name is Albert Mnali, a former District Commissioner (DC) who ordered the caning of 19 primary school teachers in the northern region of Kagera.

The teachers were said to have been caned by a police officer in front of their pupils after an investigation into poor exam results at three schools. The report blamed teachers for being late or not showing up for work and not teaching the official syllabus.

When the then DC ordered the teachers to be flogged, he was trying to come up with a solution to a problem bedeviling the education sector. In fact, the incident exposed a lot of short comings in the sector that leads to pupils failing to make it in life. The teachers were blamed for their students’ failure as they came late for school and sometimes failed to show up.

It’s not all rosy in the education sector and schools, especially in rural areas continue tuning out half-baked products, most of them illiterate. It is a shame and many schools are in a sorry state of affairs. Some of them don’t have proper structures while others don’t have desks and chairs. Books and other equipment are either not adequate or unavailable.

Some students have to brave harsh Tanzanian weather conditions to walk several kilometers to and from school. Poverty on the other hand contributes much to pregnancies that have cut short the education of thousands of schoolgirls throughout the country. With the look of things, much still needs to be done to make sure the sector is in order.

I also don’t know whether the recently rejected policy draft titled, “Education and Training Policy”, was a joke of some kind or what? I commend our Members of Parliament for out rightly rejecting the draft that was presented by a certain Calistus Chonya, Policy Analyst, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, that was aimed at slashing the current number of years for primary education from the current seven to six.

I consider this a joke because it was proposed at a time when there is a lot to be desired when it comes to the quality of primary school leavers in this country.

The act of coming up with such proposals is tantamount to ‘kupoteza mishale kwa kuwinda kunguru wakati kanga wanakuja.’ Surely there are many other pressing issues that should be addressed in the ministry first before thinking of reducing the years.

Let the powers that be know that what is wrong with our education system is not the number of years pupils study, but the quality of education they get. More effort is needed to make sure that service delivery is improved and once everything is in order then we might think of reducing the years.

As long as the learning environment is not improved and even if the number of primary school years are increased, then no positive results will be achieved. The problem bedeviling the education sector is too big for the government to tackle it alone. This calls for the private sector to chip in and help address some of the shortfalls.

Discipline among teachers is vital to turn around the sector. Mnali was forced to instill discipline in the same manner teachers use to instill it to their pupils. Don’t get me wrong dear reader, I am not condemning and neither am I condoning what the DC did but what I am trying to highlight here is that teachers need to pull up their socks and make sure that they do justice to the little ones.

Again, we may all blame the teachers but if we look at their working conditions then we are also forced to feel sorry for them. Sometimes we tend to expect miracles out of them while at the same time they are incapacitated by the working conditions and environment. The problem in the education sector is like a vicious circle it is very difficult to lay blame on one group of people in the circle.

That’s why the blame game is so evident every time results, be they Grade Seven, Form Four or Form Six, are published. The government usually blames both the teachers and students, while students blame their teachers and sometimes parents. Parents on the other hand blame teachers and the government while teachers blame the government and students; the list is endless.

A solution is exactly what is needed. There is need to overhaul the education sector for us to achieve the intended results, lest the gains we have achieved in the sector can be reversed. Everyone has to play his or her part and together we will make it.

bongoblast@thisday.co.tz/symeniah.blogspot.com/0657651300