Mwinyi awards laptops to best students

ZANZIBAR President Dr Hussein Mwinyi has said that his government will continue to prioritize education due to its significance in development.

President Dr Mwinyi made the remark during a ceremony to award best students in 2021 Form IV national exam and 2022 Form VI students and distribution of other tablets to Zanzibar’s primary and secondary schools.

“We cannot execute development projects without enough experts, therefore education must be priority number one” Dr Mwinyi   said.

He said the government will continue to build high rise buildings in primary and secondary schools in order to end the system in which students are learning in shifts. “We want one class to have only 45 students.”

The president added that for this year, the government expects to construct 2,000 additional classrooms and employ more teachers for Mathematics and Science subjects for secondary school.

He also instructed the Ministry of Education to continue with school’s inspections program so that teachers can follow the guidelines and teaching procedures carefully.

On her part, Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Ms Lela Mohamed Mussa said her ministry has prepared systems to enable teachers and students to teach and learn using the tablets.

She said the ministry in collaboration with the government of Austria is currently preparing E-WEMA project which will enable teachers and students to access systems without using the internet.

She further added that Tanzania Education Authority (TEA) and the Zanzibar Institute of Education have prepared the content of all lessons and all books for ministries, schools, education institutions, teachers and students to access academic information.

The Principle Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, Mr Khamis Abdullah said a total of 1,142 students scored Division One, including 449 Form IV and 693 form VI students from private and government schools in Zanzibar.

Mr Abdullah said the headteachers will be in charge of the tablets because they are government properties, adding that the devices as a teaching and learning resources will fulfill the government’s intention to improve learning through the use of technology.

He added that the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training will distribute a total of 6,510 tablets, equivalents to 99 per cent to all 571 Unguja and Pemba government schools while the remaining tablets will be distributed to some government institutions.

Dr Mwinyi recently reaffirmed that his government will continue to ensure provision of quality education in order to produce skilled workforce during the official opening of two new schools in South and North Pemba last week

According to the president, the ongoing reforms in the education sector will lead to provision of quality education and admirable performance and in turn produce a workforce capable of developing the Islands.

The schools with high rise buildings opened by the president are Mwambe Primary School in South Pemba and Makangale Secondary School in North Pemba.

“We want these reforms to be reflected in the national examinations. We want to see excellent performance and quality education that will lead to producing skilled labour force,” Dr Mwinyi said.

Elaborating, he further said that the reforms in the education sector which include renovation of old buildings and construction of new ones will improve learning and teaching environment to achieve the expected outcomes.

The new schools and other renovated schools will have all the standard facilities, such as laboratory, library and enough desks and qualified teachers, whose welfare need to be reviewed in order to motivate them.

“The government is committed to ensure that it addresses students overcrowding and improve teacher- student’s ratio and lack of toilets,” Dr Mwinyi said, while urging students, parents and teachers to make the best use of the improved learning environment.

In a related development, the President said that the government with the support of IMF Covid-19 relief funds injected 68bn/- to improve the education sector by constructing new buildings and improving hygiene by constructing toilets and ensure reliable water supply.

“I commend the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training management for better utilisation of the funds. I promise to inject more funds, about 100bn/- to finance the ongoing projects so that they are all completed come 2025,” he said.