A parliamentary committee pushes government over teachers’ pay

THE Parliamentary Community Service Committee has advised the government to quickly fulfill the process of settling down teachers’ payments slated for their hard working condition which have been in demand list over a decade now. The call by the committee is among several advices contained in its 28 paged report that outlines its work implementation for the period starting from April to December 2013 which was issued yesterday in Parliament. Tabling the report, the committee’s chairperson Margaret Sitta said that, settling such payments on time, is a prerequisite for the move to curb with the increased shortage of professional teachers whose number has been noticed to  be lesser in most rural areas in the country. She said that, together with the efforts shown so far by the government to pay teachers’ demands including various allowances to the tune of Sh. 52 billion for within 2009-2012 financial years, still there are various allowances which have not yet been paid. Sitta noted that, teachers in the country have lost interest in teaching for their unpaid allowances which her committee has discovered have been demanded by teachers for almost over a decade now. She noted that, it was painful as her committee had discovered that there are about 502 employed teachers in the Ministry of Education for 2012/13 period, who have their demands cancelled due to reasons that have not met criteria as specified by the ministry. However, she has advised the government to overlook at the matter and deliberate on how it can help solve the situation and without active intervention on the issue, the country would continue losing best teachers as people would shun the profession.  She further noted that, the government should keep on paying the teachers’ arrears as quick as possible so as to avoid further accumulation for their dues, an aspect that force them to resort to stage a demonstration. On the education system, the committee has noted that the government should establish an agency which would work together with some stakeholders, private institutions in a bid to increase the standards of education which seems to have dropped to a certain extent in the country. Margaret Sitta, who has ever served as a minister for education noted that, the government agency must have also the task of supervising the quality of education in the country, something which she said has never been implemented in the country.  Elaborating on the mode of teaching students in the country, Sitta whose profession is a teacher noted that, her committee members discovered that the teaching language in Tanzanian schools is a challenge to students in regard to the provision of quality education in the country. She said that, most students in Tanzanian primary and secondary schools and being taught on how to cram subjects a tactic that enables them answer questions, but not to build their capacity thinking at the international level standard. However, she noted that, the persisting situation will cause a great loss to the nation in future as there will be professionals in particular field a prospective candidate would be able to concentrate on for the benefit of the nation in future. Contributing ton the idea with sadness, Salum Buruani (CUF), said that, the issue of teachers in the country has become a subject of debate for long time without a solution and seemingly the government has turned a blind eye over the issue.  Lucy Owenya (Chadema) said that, education in the country is deteriorating in terms of quality mostly due to the budget constraints issued to run the entire ministry of Education in the country. She noted that, the persisting situation has caused poor teaching standards of students which results into the massive failure of students in the country. Worse still, she continued, there are no enough housing facilities for teachers especially in rural areas. Abdul MalomBa (CCM) queried about teachers’ curriculum development and noted that, is not all that is of the quality standards. He noted that, most teachers in the country have reached up to ordinary level standard of education and the ministry of education does not care about their being upgraded to increase their work efficiency. He gave an example of the medical doctors whom he said started with the levels of standard seven in the past and were upgraded to the rank of medical offers. He said most doctors started with Rural Medical Assistants (RMA) and gradually were upgraded to Medical Assistants, then to Medical Officers, and full Doctors. But he further said that, it is very astonishing to see that in education sector, there are no such kinds of promotion for teachers in the country, this is such one aspect which education quality in the country has dropped.

Margaret Sitta, the committee chairperson of the Parliamentary Community Service Committee