Govt to employ more science teachers

AT least 4,128 secondary school science teachers will be employed in the first half of this year, a move that aims at addressing an acute shortage of science teachers at secondary schools. The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Dr Leonard Akwilapo, said in Dar es Salaam recently that his ministry had already submitted a request to the Public Service Recruitment Secretariat for the employment. “Priority has been given to science teachers as schools have surplus arts teachers with shortage of teachers in science subjects,” said the DPS shortly after opening training for preschool teachers organised by the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE). Dr Akwilapo further noted that the government plans to review structure of teachers grading currently based on teaching experience in order to grade them based on teaching performance, pointing out that the government will apply the Open Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) for grading. “Under the current system, teachers might be upgraded despite of poor teaching performance simply because of having a long experience in teaching field. The new structure thus aims at encouraging teachers with good teaching performance,” he pointed out. As for pre-school teachers training on curriculum, Dr Akwilapo pointed out that the training was vital to unravel the problem of some teachers who lack teaching skills in new curriculum. “I urge you to make use of this training to acquire teaching skills to enhance competence in teaching,” he said. Acting TIE Director General, Dr Elia Kilogo, said his institute had for the first time prepared text books from preschool to the advanced level of education, adding that the institute had also finalized to prepare teaching guideline books. “TIE has finalised an exercise to improve curriculum for pre-school education level as well as preparing text books,” he said. A Training Coordinator at TIE, Ms Leonida Tenga, said a total of 16,129 pre-school teachers were taking part in the training countrywide, adding that the training aims at imparting teaching skills to them in accordance to new curriculum. She said the one-week training, jointly carried out by TIE and National Council for Technical Education (NACTE), was being conducted at 17 stations in the country, adding that it was preceded by preparing 22 national training facilitators.