Hamad: We’ll build more schools, respect teachers

Unguja. ACT-Wazalendo’s Zanzibar presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad says if elected his government will build more schools to reduce the current student congestion.

Mr Hamad made the promise yesterday when addressing a rally at the Bi Amran grounds in Mpandae Constituency, Mkoa Mjini Magharibi.

He claimed that currently over 100 pupils get crammed in one classroom, causing pupils to perform poorly in their academic activities. Moreover, the presidential candidate said ACT-Wazalendo’s government would fix the problem if elected into power during this year’s October 28 polls.

Mr Hamad, who doubles as the ACT-Wazalendo chairman, claimed that in the past, Zanzibar’s educational levels progressed well to the extent of ranking third in Africa. However, he said that level had substantially gone down and that it was no longer surprising to see schools coming up with poor performance in various local and national examinations.

He added that if elected to the top office, he would start putting an emphasis on constructing more primary school classrooms, particularly in rural areas.

“ACT will build high-rise school buildings, whose number of pupils would not be more than 35 in one classroom. “We will ensure that every room has sufficient desks and other educational materials. All pupils would have access to text books, pens and pencils at the government cost,” he said.

“It is the duty of a government to provide services to its people and not at all proper for that government to tell its people to make contributions again and again. We will also ensure that every pupil is equipped with study tools, and from Standard One, pupils will be using computers,” he pledged amid applauds.

In his speech that centred on the education sector, Hamad also pledged to review the benefits of Zanzibar teachers and restore their statuses. In his campaign meetings has been advocating that the minimum salaries would be set at Sh500,000 in the first year of his presidency, and then rise annually.

He said yesterday teachers and doctors would be given special treatment because of their roles in society. He said developed countries valued teachers by paying them higher salaries than the other public employees.

“Here in Zanzibar, I would want the salaries of teachers to be bigger than those of politicians, who have been increasing theirs each passing day. I would want our teachers to take the government as theirs and one that cares for them,” said Mr Seif.

Mr Seif, who once was Zanzibar’s first vice president, also said that the situation facing Madrasa and Qur’an teachers was not good.

However, he pledged that, if elected president, he would ensure that those Islamic teachers were included in the government’s salary payroll.