State to honour best teachers
THE government will on June 6 recognise outstanding pre-primary, primary and secondary school teachers during the Fourth National Teaching Skills Competition, as part of efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning across the country.
The competition, which attracted more than 3,000 teachers nationwide, aims to promote innovation, professionalism and the use of learner-centred teaching methods in classrooms.
Deputy Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Ms Wanu Hafidh Ameir, said the initiative is part of the National School-Based Continuous Professional Development Programme for Teachers, which seeks to strengthen teachers’ competencies and improve learning outcomes.
Speaking to journalists in Dodoma yesterday, Ms Wanu said the programme recognises and rewards excellence in teaching while encouraging wider adoption of best practices in schools.
“The competition promotes interactive teaching approaches, effective assessment and feedback mechanisms, while enhancing teachers’ capacity to develop learning content that can be shared through the national Learning Management System (LMS),” she explained.
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According to the deputy minister, the initiative also supports government efforts to improve foundational literacy and numeracy among earlygrade learners. She said the programme complements the Scientific Strategy for Building Reading, Writing and Numeracy Competencies, launched by President Samia Suluhu Hassan in January this year, which aims to ensure every child acquires essential foundational skills at the appropriate stage of learning.
A total of 3,153 teachers registered for this year’s competition through the National Teaching Skills Competition System (TSCS), with 1,263 successfully completing all requirements, including submission of teaching videos and lesson plans for evaluation.
The competition features seven categories: Reading for Pre-Primary, English for Standard One, Teaching and Learning Materials Development for Standard Two, as well as Physics, Mathematics, Business Studies and Computer Science for secondary school teachers.
Ms Wanu said the categories were selected because of their importance in strengthening literacy, numeracy, entrepreneurship, English language proficiency and 21st-century skills among learners. Under the awards scheme, firstplace winners will receive 2.5m/-, certificates, a laptop and a projector for their schools.
Schools producing winners in the Reading, English and Teaching Materials Development categories will also receive 100 electronic learning tablets worth 5m/-.
Second-place winners will receive 2m/-, certificates, a laptop and a projector for their schools, while third-place winners will receive 1.5m/-, certificates, a laptop and a projector.
Fourth and fifth-place winners will each receive a laptop and a certificate of recognition. Ms Wanu said all winning teaching videos will be professionally rerecorded at the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) studios and uploaded to the national Learning Management System and TET Soma Kwanza TV platform to enable teachers across the country to learn from top-performing educators. She commended participants for their commitment, innovation and dedication to improving teaching and learning.
“Their participation reflects the determination of Tanzanian teachers to enhance education quality and equip learners with skills required in the 21st century,” she noted.
Ms Wanu reaffirmed the government’s commitment to supporting teacher innovation and professional excellence as part of ongoing education reforms. The competition is coordinated by the Tanzania Institute of Education under the Primary Students Learning Programme (BOOST) and the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Programme (SEQUIP).
