THE Ministry of Education and Vocational
Training is working on a strategic plan, which will among other issues,
reinforce the ban on tuition classes.
The move comes amid revelations that
teachers have continued to defy the Ministry’s directives that prohibits
them to conduct tuition classes.
“Since the ministry is now working on
its strategic plan, the issue of tuition will be incorporated in the
monitoring and evaluation component under the strategy to ensure that
those who violate any directive are taken to task,” explained the
ministry’s Assistant Director - School Registration, Ms Hadija Mcheka.
“We want to remind teachers who are
perpetuating this practice that it is not healthy for the education of
students, since such teachers tend to focus on tuition rather than
delivering in the classrooms, which is tantamount to exploiting
students,” she said.
She said measures have been taken to
ensure that such practices are stopped, since the ministry is committed
to creating a level education ground for all students.
She also said that there was a mechanism
of detecting anomalies in such schools whereby educational inspectors
are deployed at all levels including districts and villages every two
years to examine the standards including enforcing the tuition ban.
“Unfortunately, the monitoring and
evaluation system is facing a lot of challenges including financial
constraints, working tools and others,” she said.
“We call upon the media and other
stakeholders to join hands in reporting such anomalies since they are
doing a great job in keeping the ministry informed of such
discrepancies,” she added.
She said that it was in the interest of
the government that the country should create a level ground for all the
students who are pursuing their studies, regardless of their economic
status. However, there were conflicting views during the survey
conducted by this paper in the three districts of Dar es Salaam, namely
Kinondoni, Temeke and Ilala regarding ban on tuition in public schools.
Some parents support the move by the
ministry saying that it will help to improve the quality of education
and class teaching in schools especially the Ward secondary schools.
“We are urging the government to prepare
the mechanism of monitoring the schools, so that such practices are
discouraged or else penalised,” said Khamisi Sultan of Mbagala whose
student attend government schools.
Another resident of Kinondoni, Thomas
Brayan said that since he belongs to the low income bracket, the only
schools he can afford to send his children are Ward schools, and unless
there are concerted measures to stop teachers from stealing students’
class time the nation cannot achieve its goal of quality education.
Students from public schools including
Ward schools, have welcomed the ministry’s move to ban tuition but
appealed to them to implement the strategic plan once it is ready.
The government announced recently that
it was working with other educational stakeholders to develop a
strategic plan which will help to enforce discipline and ethics as well
as quality and standards in local schools.
In a weeklong survey some tuition
centres in the city and outside the city, whose teachers are running
these tuition classes despite the ban said that they were forced to do
so because students and parents were desperate and in dire need of their
services.
“We are waiting to see the ban being
enforced, as it has not been served to us officially, though we know
that our acts have been frustrating the ministry, but which is the
lesser evil,” one of the teachers who run tuition classes every Sunday
in the city centre and preferred anonymity said.
Mugame Kondo of Boko area in the city, a
parent of two, blasted the ministry, saying that it had instituted
measures to ban the tuition without any research.
“If you go around the city, mentioning
Mtendeni, Mwenge, Tabata areas and other places the beneficiaries of
these tuitions are countless,” he said.
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