Arusha School short of science, commerce teachers

Arusha. One of the public secondary schools with a high student intake is short of science teachers, it was announced here yesterday.

Ngarenaro Secondary School currently has a total of 49 teachers but needs at least 12 to teach science and commerce subjects.

The performance of the school, which currently has nearly 2,000 students has gone down steeply due to the shortfall, according to the councillor Isaya Doita.

He told The Citizen he was reaching out the Education department in Arusha city to bring the required teachers before the situation gets worse.

According to him, the school also has an acute shortage of toilets and needs at least 14 holes to cater for its large number of students and workers.

On security, Mr. Doita said he was mobilizing resources from corporate bodies and other well wishers to construct a perimeter wall around the school.

Ngarenaro Secondary School, located in the high density Ngrarenaro suburb along the Dodoma road is close to the famous Kilombero wholesale food market.

The opposition party councillor lauded  the government for its 'free education' policy but urged the authorities to address the shortage of teachers,desks,toilet holes, classrooms and water.

In recent years, the government through its training institutions has spearheaded a drive  to encourage girls in particular to embrace science subjects in schools.

Arusha regional authorities, however, have attributed the poor learning of science in both primary and secondary schools to the limited number of science teachers.

It is currently estimated that the vast region has a shortage of nearly 1,000 teachers in the government-run secondary schools alone.

The science subjects in question are Biology, Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry. Physics is the most critically affected subject, according to education experts.