EDITORIAL: Beware crooked teachers!

We are fast approaching October 25 when the Tanzanian electorate will speak with their voter card and elect leaders at the civic, parliamentary and the presidential levels. These will be men and women in whose hands we shall place our destiny, at least for the next five years. Maligned as politicians generally, these are important people, for to all intents and purposes, they will be our rulers.

>The General Election is just around the corner, so it is no wonder campaigns are already underway despite the warning by supreme organs of political parties that everybody should wait for the whistle before anyone starts canvassing for votes.   The polls are slated for October, so there are only eight months to go before Tanzanians pick who they want for councillor, MP and president.

The government’s vow this week that it would never part with money to bail out co-operative unions that owe banks huge sums of cash unless they take legal action against dishonest officials first, should serve as a timely warning.

>A recent Unesco report on teacher availability shows Tanzania is the ninth most needy country in the world. To end the shortfall, says the report released by the UN agency’s Institute of Statistics, the country must recruit at least 406,600 teachers by 2030. That is only 15 years from now!

>Tomorrow is Teachers’ Day and it will be celebrated at national level in Kagera Region. As we mark this day, we should reflect on the plight of our teachers countrywide. We may have ward secondary schools virtually countrywide, but what those schools produce at the end of the learning cycle is often devastating.

>We could not agree more with some critics on the need to go beyond quantity and look at the quality of the education being given to our young ones.

>The era is long gone in Tanzania, when someone’s name being prefixed by ‘Mwalimu’ was a great honour. Nyerere’s association with the education sector consolidated his popularity, by being informally designated as teacher of his countrymen, after becoming a full-time politician.

>Chief Secretary Ombeni Sefue has urged permanent secretaries in different ministries who will fail to correct deficiencies raised by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) to voluntarily resign.

IPPmedia
Kikwete to bid teachers farewell at Teachers' Union meeting
IPPmedia
President Jakaya Kikwete is tomorrow expected to officiate the ninth annual general meeting (AGM) of the Tanzania Teachers' Union (TTU) to be held in Arusha's Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge. He is also expected to use the opportunity to bid farewell to teachers ...