This is one of the primary schools facing a myriad of challenges, including congestion of pupils in classrooms, lack of toilet or shortage of latrine pits, shortage of teachers and text books. “It is embarrassing to run a school with no toilets.
The pupils have to ask for a favour at the nearby primary school which also has six latrine pits only,” says Mwambao Primary School Head Teacher, Ms Jane Mhina during the Uwezo annual learning assessments.
The large scale citizen-led assessments of literacy and numeracy among children focus on the number of children enrolled, classrooms built and teachers recruited or textbooks supplied to public primary schools.
Ms Mhina further says a small number of classrooms poses a major challenge for learning environment at Mwambao Primary School, saying the school has been using only six out of ten classrooms as four others are a ramshackle.
“Our school faces congestion of pupils in classrooms as the results of small number of classrooms. Standard I alone, for instance, has 82 pupils while the classroom with a smallest number of pupils is Standard IV with 55 pupils,” she observes.
The school, which is situated at Majengo ward in Muheza District, was established in 2005 and inherited the buildings from Mdote Primary School which was established in 1979. “Pupils are forced to bring water with them from home because our school does not access clean water service,” says Ms Mhina.
She points out further having no fence has resulted in some people to encroach on the school compound adding that a road near the school causes another challenge to the school including security and noise.
Elsewhere at Mamboleo Village in the district, pupils are forced to cover a long distance on their way to school at Lusanga village to get education service due to lack of primary schools at their village.
According to the Mamboleo Village Chairman, Mr Masudi Omari, the pupils have to walk some 2km distance to Lusanga Village where there are primary schools and that many pupils from the village fail to attend schools during the rainy season.
“Pupils fail to attend schools during the rainy season because of the overflowing of the Kilulu River which divide the Mamboleo and Lusanga villages,” says the Village Chairman.
Mr Omari says the village is lacking schools and health facilities forcing Mamboleo residents to depend on Lusanga village for the social services, saying residents have to walk a long distance to the village for social services including health care and education.
Mr Omari appeals to the Muheza District authorities to speed up plans to put up schools and health facilities in the Village noting that the social services were vital for uplifting welfare of the villagers.
“I call on the Muheza District authorities to earmark areas for the children playground as huge part of the village’s area is owned by the Tanzania Sisal Authority,” he says. Mr Omari is thankful that the Muheza District authorities has registered Mamboleo as a village earlier this year, saying the move is the stepping stone for bringing social services closer to the people in the village.
“Social services will be facilitating to speed up social development in the village thus improving welfare of the people,” he told the ‘Daily News’ during the annual learning assessments, which also help to collect data from households.
The annual learning assessments carried out by Twaweza Tanzania under its Uwezo initiatives involved 60 volunteers, covered 30 villages in Muheza District and it facilitated to collect data from 600 households and 30 primary schools.
Opening training to the volunteers, the Muheza District Administrative Secretary (DAS), Mr Paul Mushi, thanked Twaweza Tanzania for its contribution in improvement of education largely how best for children to learn.
“We’re all aware that the government alone without strong partnership with stakeholders cannot improve education,” said the DAS. Mr Mushi says the Uwezo annual learning assessments are the best ways to address challenges facing education sector as the assessments facilitate to establish shortcomings. “It’s vital to conduct assessment in order to get accurate data for national development.
We can get the big picture of the problem after the evaluation,” he says. Mr Mushi points out that the government appreciates the initiatives carried out by Twaweza Tanzania noting that the assessments have helped to improve education service.
“I call on other education stakeholders to emulate Twaweza Tanzania for its major contribution into education sector. I appeal to other stakeholders to join hands with the government to improve the education sector,” he says.
/Daily News.
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