Mkenda outlines five priorities in 2.394tri/- education plan

DODOMA: Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Adolf Mkenda, has requested Parliament’s approval of a total budget of 2.394tri/- for the 2026/27 financial year, as his ministry seeks to implement five key priorities aligned with ongoing reforms in the education sector.

Tabling the spending plan in the National Assembly in Dodoma today (May 7, 2026), Prof Mkenda said in the forthcoming fiscal year, the government will continue implementing education policies and curricula, reviewing laws, preparing guidelines and providing training across the country.

Under this priority area, the Minister explained that the government will continue preparations for the implementation of compulsory 10-year education in order to accommodate Standard Six and Standard Seven students simultaneously beginning January 2028.

“Implementation of this important initiative is being coordinated by the President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG), while the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology will collaborate closely with PO-RALG,” said Prof Mkenda.

According to him, the two offices are working together in preparing guidelines, mobilising resources for infrastructure construction and procurement of the required equipment, encouraging stakeholder participation, including the private sector, and providing teacher training.

He mentioned the other four priorities as expanding access to and improving the quality of vocational training in secondary schools and vocational colleges; expanding access to and improving the quality of pre-primary, primary, secondary and teacher education; expanding access to and improving the quality of higher education; and strengthening the country’s capacity in research, science, technology and innovation to stimulate industrial economic growth.

Prof Mkenda added that the government will prepare, print and distribute 8,000,000 copies of textbooks and teachers’ guides, including 3,102,263 copies for Standard Six primary schools, 338,838 secondary school textbooks for Form Four vocational streams and 4,558,899 textbooks for Form Three general education streams.

Contributing to the Ministry’s 2.394tri/- spending proposal tabled in the National Assembly in Dodoma, Special Seats MP Asha Feruz (CCM) proposed reforms to enhance the Board to generate more funds to cater for the education needs of growing number of loans beneficiaries.

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In her contribution, the lawmaker admitted that there is progress in funding the higher students to citing that the Board started issuing loans amounting to only 70bn/- but kept on rising to a whopping 900bn/- annually though the demand is still growing.

“My recommendation is that we should consider reforms of the Loans Board. While the Board is doing a very important job, the demand from students is very high and the available funding is not sufficient to cover all eligible applicants.”

“I suggest that we transform the Loans Board into a Fund. This would allow us to reform its legal framework and expand its ability to generate income. Continuing to rely on a single source of funding limits access for children from poor families, including those from farming households,” the MP insisted.