Govt sticks to 7-year primary education

THE Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has re-affirmed that all primary school pupils in the country will undergo the mandatory seven-year education without a single penny.

The Permanent Secretary (PS) in the ministry, Dr Leonard Akwilapo, said that the much touted debate whether the government was changing the duration of primary education to six years (Standard Six level) or not, had been closed once and for all.

Dr Akwilapo expressed the government’s stance while officiating a teachers’ meeting focusing on Reading, Writing and Counting in Tanzania Mainland. According to him, it was not proper for pupils to have their primary education reduced, insisting that the government’s plan was to have all Tanzanian pupils learn up to Standard Seven.

“Our formal system of Standard Seven primary education remains intact and if it happens that we make changes, the government will issue an official statement on the same.’’ Dr Akwilapo said that his ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of State in the President’s Office,

Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) were putting measures in place to strengthen primary, secondary and tertiary education in the country. The Assistant Director in the Ministry of State, President’s Office RALG, Odilia Mushi, said it was the right time to provide allowances to teachers.

In March, this year, Tanzania made significant strides in access to primary education in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), recording a good number of Gross Enrolment Ration (GER), according to the World Bank (WB).

In the East African Region, Kenya was leading and the Bretton Woods Institution’s findings had placed it in the established group, while Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda were in the emerged group and Burundi had been placed in the emerging group. Other countries were in the last group called ‘delayed’, which remain far short of universal coverage in primary eduContinues on Page 3 cation.