Kawambwa: There is a great shortage of teachers in the country

Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa

THE Minister for Education and Vocational Training Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa has said that, the government has reiterated its commitment to make sure that, it is striving hard in order to curb with the great shortage of teachers it has in both primary and secondary schools in the country. Minister Kawambwa was responding a question asked by Maida Hamad Abdallah (CCM) Special seat who wanted to know that since the approval of the budget for the 2011/12 financial year, how many teachers have been employed in both primary and secondary schools in the country. The legislator also wanted to know that, with the number of the available schools in the country, should the government indicate the statistic shortage of teachers it has in the country and what actually has caused the shortage so far and what action it has taken to remedy the situation. The Minister told the Parliament yesterday that, since the approvals of the budget, the total number of 54,142 teachers have been employed as up to date. He said 26,492 teachers were employed in 2011/12 period, and likewise, a total of 27,650 were employed in 2012/13 period in both primary and secondary schools respectively. Basing on the 2012/13 statistics, Dr. Kawambwa noted that, the need for teachers in primary schools were 204,131, whereas currently there are 167,508 teachers, with the available statistics, there is a shortage of 36,623 teachers which is equivalent to 17.94 percent. Either he noted that, the need for teachers in secondary schools in the country were 103,950, whereas in great surprise there are only 66,820 in government schools. With this statistics, there is a shortage of 37,130 teachers which is equivalent to 35.72 percent.  Citing for the impending shortage, he said this is due to the high increase of the newly constructed ward secondary schools in the country, and coupled by high rate of the students’ registrations whose success has come about as a result of the effective implementation of the Secondary School Development Program, popularly known in Kiswahili acronym ‘MMEM’. However, the Minister also quoted other successes are due to the massive registration on primary school’s pupil’s registration under the national program, known as by Kiswahili acronym as ‘MMES’.  Recently a United Nations report on education hailed Tanzania to have excelled in students’ registration in her schools as part of its fulfillment of the Millennium Derv elopement Goals (MDGs) 2015.