The government has introduced special examinations for all teacher training colleges to test the academic competence of the teaching students before they advance for their second study year.
Deputy Minister of Education and Vocational Training Philip Mulugo
An arrangement to be implemented in eight zones and start officially this academic year will involve all public and private teacher training colleges whose students won’t be allowed to proceed for the second year unless they attain 40 per cent pass mark.
Deputy Minister of Education and Vocational Training Mr Philip Mulugo told the ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam that the new examination is important to ensure new teachers are well prepared academically to undertake their teaching challenges.
According to him, the ministry has come to learn that many of the recent graduate teachers have demonstrated poor performance in the office, prompting the government to take immediate action to reverse the trend.
“In the last three years, we have experienced a sharp drop of teaching performance among many teachers especially in primary schools so the new examination will probably help redress the matter,” he reported.
He explained that the system will also push the teachers study hard in colleges insisting those who will fail to attain 40 per cent pass mark won’t be allowed in the second year until they make it.
According to Mr Mulugo, experience has shown that in recent years, student-teachers have miserably failed their final examinations to the point of many ending up scooping average pass of C while very few getting A and B.
In the wake of such scenarios, he said, it has been deliberately resolved for them to sit for the qualifying test to sharpen them ready for the second and final year of the college.
On when the Ministry will stop selecting division scores in Form Four examinations to join teacher colleges, the deputy minister said the situation is due to the fact that if best performers are selected to join teaching, there is a danger that enrollments for Form Five and Six might badly be affected.
“Of late, we still have a problem where best performers with division one, two or even three in Form four examinations are still very few.
Therefore, we keep on selecting students who scored division four for teacher training colleges,” he said. However, he said to improve on that area, the government is considering starting selecting students who scored division four with 26 points to join teacher training colleges in the future instead of the current 27 points.
Mr Mulugo said preparations are going on to establish a school inspectorate agency to take over from the current school inspectorate department under the ministry.
In the new set up, a new organ with more regulatory powers will be put in place to oversee best practices in the provision of primary and secondary education countrywide.
Mr Mulugo said the existence of a body to monitor the provision of primary and secondary education was vital just like the case with technical colleges and universities “where the National Council for Technical Education (NACTE) and the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) are progressing well’’.
By PIUS RUGONZIBWA, Tanzania Daily News
