Dear diary,
It is heart breaking, the fact
that most Tanzanians cannot reach the international literacy average. Yet year after
year our education slips down the list of important matters to be addressed
head on. For a long time now I have tried to look back trying to pin point the
exact moment when our education system started to fall apart. When it did become
a cancer that is threatening the future of our nation and no one cares to find the
cure for it. I am not sure when, but what breaks my heart even more is the fact
that our leaders would rather sit in the parliament coming up with theories rather
than action plans to change the situation
Perhaps it’s a just “math” and other science
subjects that most Tanzanians have never been good at. Perhaps it is the
teaching language in our schools or maybe it is the syllabus we use. These are
just some of the many opinions our leaders use as an excuse as to why students performances
is becoming poor and poor. What no one seems to notice is; low performance is
not limited to science subjects nor is it limited to secondary schools where
the media for communication is English. As hard as it might be for anyone to believe;
there are pupils who finish primary school and pass their national exams
without knowing how to write or read. The question is.... how did they do the
exam and pass?? Apologists will never get tired of finding excuses as to why
this and that happened, but what they don’t seem to get it the “why” is not as
important as “how and what” can be done to improve the situation.
Those who went to school on the 1990s or even before that would agree with me, education used to be important back
then, teachers used to be more committed to educate students than doing businesses
to sustain their families, schools used to be places where one will gain more
knowledge on development, growth or new invention. But now days the education
is more about cramming and passing exams. Everyone seems to forget education is
not about passing exams but what you remain with after you have graduated. Our government
is bent on making exams even easier for students to pass instead of improving
the education system and methods. It is more determined in producing graduates who have big certificates but little brains...
Dear diary, I weep for the future
generations of this great nation, the generation that the government would opt
to remark national exams to improve the results (does it even make sense? I mean
how do you remark the exam to improve the results? Put a tick where there was a
cross before?). I weep for those
children of ours who will be taught in Swahili from primary school to higher
learning institutions, our poor government is limiting their employment opportunities
to a country that is already flooded with unemployment... oooh what is even
worse is their second option ; teaching everything in English form primary
school to higher learning institutions, using teachers who cannot express
themselves in English, the teachers for never passed form four National Exams
because English language was too difficult for them to build the foundation of language.
I weep for those children who go
to school to use a book that says 2x5= 25 and the teacher are too busy to
notice since they are busy selling candies to students so that they can get
food for their families. I weep for more
than half of all Tanzania children the will be chosen to join ward secondary
school because these schools have no teachers, no classes, no laboratories, no
libraries and yet they are expected to compete in the competitive economy of
East Africa. They are expected to be the leaders who will take this nation to
the next level.
Can’t anyone else see that the
principle reason for decline and fall of our education is ignorance? Our education is ignored; we have built more schools but we have fewer classrooms and no teachers. No laboratories and no
libraries, yet the government will help to improve science education by giving
full sponsorship (in higher learning Institutions) to science students. The question
that I keep asking myself is, if a house has a really poor foundation can you improve it by roofing it with the most expensive roof?? And By the way who are these science students
that will be sponsored, are they children from the poor family who never
knew what a chemistry teacher look like or are they the children of the wealthy
part of the country who went to study abroad and came back to sit for national exams??
Can’t anyone see the few teachers
we have in these school are ignored to the fullest?? They are the only people
who can change the future of this nation yet they have no salaries, no houses to
live or even means of transport to get to work? Can’t anyone see that one
teacher cannot teach a class of 200 students and make each and every one of
them understand what he/she is teaching?
The more I listen to our leaders
the more I weep for the future generations; all suggestions to improve
education are based on selfishness, little thought for the future of children
of the poor. I fear for the future of this nation, a nation that was once
united being torn apart between the haves and the have nots because of our
education system. The haves will send their children to expensive private
schools( almost all our leaders already do this), to get the first grade
education while the others will be stack in ward secondary school where there
is basically nothing to learn for more than half the time you are in school. The
children of the rich will come back; rule the millions of other young people who
are alienated and with no hope of improving their children’s future.
I see two societies, living side
by side, in the same country, one preying over the other with no mercy. I see
the foreigners coming to our countries taking all the good jobs in our own
country while majority of us remain unemployed due to poor qualification. I see
limited thinking, low exposure and poor decision making that might put this
nation in a great danger....... I see the beginning of the end.
