7,400 secondary teachers to shift to primary schools

Dodoma. The government plans to transfer the excess 7,463 secondary school arts subjects teachers to primary schools which are facing a serious shortage.

This was revealed yesterday by the deputy permanent secretary in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government), Mr Benard Makali, when responding to issues raised by members of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC).

The PAC was yesterday going through a report by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) over the efficiency of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Kilindi MP (CCM) Omary Kigua wanted to know what the government’s plan was to teachers, who self-sponsored their further studies while in service.

“There are some teachers, who took loans to advance their academic qualifications while in service. How will the government handle them?” He queried.

Responding, Mr Makali explained that some secondary schools had too many teachers to the extent that they shared topics in the same subject.

He cited Makole Secondary School, in Dodoma Region, which had only one Physics teacher, while the number of arts subjects teachers were in excess.

“We have started with Arusha as a pilot region,” Mr Makali revealed, noting, however, that salaries would not be affected by the decision.

On the shortage of science and mathematics teachers, Mr Makali said they have already been granted with a permit to employ 4,129 teachers and laboratory technicians.

Sikonge MP (CCM) Joseph Kakunda recalled that the government had instructed primary school teachers lacking certain qualifications to advance their careers by going for training.

“This (CAG) report shows that such teachers are still there. Why are they still there?” he queried.

Responding, Mr Makali said there were teachers, who went for further training but studied non-teaching lessons. These remained in the same schools while others were sent to other schools depending on what they studied.

Moreover, at the time of undertaking the audit, there were 969 volunteer teachers, these too were included.

For his part, Msalala MP (CCM) Ezekiel Maige claimed that school inspectors were not doing their jobs well.

Responding, ministry’s permanent secretary Mariam Tarishi said all concerns raised would be addressed.

PAC deputy chairman Aeshi Hillary called upon members of the committee to be more serious about the issues of distributing the budget passed by Parliament to various parts of the country.