Why govt remains adamant on private education

BY EDITOR

4th January 2014

Editorial cartoon

When the founding fathers of this beautiful country struggled to build the nation, equal access to quality education was top on agenda. It was during this period when a child from the furthest south would be posted to the furthest north to acquire education.

There is no doubt that mixing up students for the objective of doing away with tribalism was one of the objectives behind taking one student from one point to the furthest point.

  

During this period, the quality of education from primary to secondary school levels was almost the same -- such that a parent could not complain upon learning that his child was posted to a particular secondary school after completing primary education at the village.
Of course, one may argue that the situation was like that because there were no private schools, especially after the government nationalized all schools that were owned by religious institutions soon after the Arusha Declaration.  

Records show that the situation started going bad during the early 1990s when the government welcomed private individuals and institutions to engage in education. Of course, the role of the private sector in education has been a subject of much emphasis and policy debate in recent years.

In developing countries, Tanzania inclusive, public resources to finance provision of social services, including education became limited in the early 1990s and this is one of the factors that compelled the government to engage the private sector in the responsibility. 

However, much as it may be appreciated, the government cannot escape blame for not coming up with an explicit policy to regulate the provision of education by the private sector. In the absence such a policy document, private school owners have been charging arbitrary school fees, forcing parents who want quality education to dig deeper into their pockets to finance it.

Yesterday, the leadership of Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners  of Non-Government Schools  and Colleges ( Tamongsco), attributed the situation to poor education policy that  recognizes the presence of private schools but does not state anything or little on how they should be run.

We are now at a point where some private primary and secondary  schools are charging  higher  fees  than universities for undergraduate students, making primary or secondary education more expensive than higher education.

Enrolling children into such expensive schools does not mean that parents are financially able; most of them do so due to the dismal level of education in government schools; so turning to private schools becomes the last option.

It should be borne in mind that until the mid-1990’s a student would be  considered bright if s/he was selected to join a government secondary school  from primary school but things are no longer the same today. 

We have reached this point because the government does not put much effort to improve its schools either because those private schools are owned by policy makers or their children are schooling in expensive schools outside the country.

It should be understood, however, that we do not say private schools should charge uniform fees what we need is the policy that would later provide guidelines to at least harmonise the industry. 

President Jakaya Kikwete, at one point, raised this concern. Now it’s time to act.

  

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN