Era of big shame for Tanzania, thanks to irresponsible leaders
By Saumu Jumanne
We have become a nation that expects too much for investing too little in
productive actions. We want to lead luxurious life for no hard work.
Students want excellent exam results from total neglect of studies! And good
heavens sometimes it happens.
The trend goes on and on from the education sector to the highest echelon
of power. Just ask a man called Mr Rudovick Uttoh- Controller and Auditor
General (CAG). His annual reports, which documents how the public sector
routinely misuses public finance are routinely ignored.
The vicious cycle of irresponsibility in the public sectors becomes a big
amen, every time Mr Uttoh opens his mouth, making public his report. I
wonder what he feels having all that knowledge of the far Tanzania could be
if resources were being used wisely for posterity.
Let me start with education sector. How on earth can one finish primary
school and after admission to secondary, it is discovered the chap cannot
read and write? The number of candidates, who do final class seven exams and
can’t do what is taught in nursery school, is alarming!
Who is responsible for the mess-students, teachers, parents or GoT? The
student cram past papers. Teachers show students how to direct all efforts
to beating National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) at its own game.
So they pass exams but can’t tell left from right. What a shame for the
whole system!
The primary school candidates score 80-100 % but four years later most can
only manage Division IV, as they never really had a good foundation for
secondary education. The outcome is partly a result of irresponsibility by
the teaching community, set drunk by the culture of copy and paste, when
making final exams. Can NECTA tell us how responsibly are those teachers
recycling exams questions year in out?
It is given that primary school teachers don’t enjoy the best job
environment but it is no excuse for irresponsibility, which is harming whole
generations. I wonder how such teachers feel when their former students
score ‘zero,’ four years they have left their hands celebrating big scores.
I must acknowledge there are some very good teachers and students who in
primary education take “education for life,” as founding father of nation
Mwalimu Nyerere would say. The time is now for NACTE to reform internal and
national examination system to avoid the mess experienced for over a decade.
Kudos to Kibaha Secondary School candidates for refusing to do a mock exam,
which was a replica of last year’s! The exam had been set for coastal
region. What a shame to education authorities!
Shameless irresponsibility is not to be found in schools only. If we were to
draw score cards of a number of ministries and public institutions, one is
likely to get a lot of ‘zeros.’ As I said earlier, if the bench mark is CAG
reports, then you are in for a shocker. Year in out taxpayers’ money is not
accounted for and no one is brought to book.
Look at a typical day of an average worker in the civil service -working
hours are 7.30AM to 4.00PM. After arrival in the office, the worker spends
30 – 60 minutes taking breakfast, tea break 30 minutes, lunch 1- to 1 ½
hours and another hour on gossips. Call me biased but I am a Tanzanian, I
have seen it all. If you have an institution with a 100 workers and their
work style is as described, in another country about 20 or so people will be
able to handle their combined job per day and maybe do better. I forgot what
work does a government minister do? Help me out.
*Saumu Jumanne is an Assistant Lecturer at Dar es Salaam University College
of Education.