Axe to fall on 9,000 workers, hints JPM

Dar es Salaam. President John Magufuli has revealed that there are over 9,000 civil servants who hold fake academic certificates.

The President said yesterday he was now waiting for a complete report on the scam before taking action against the culprits.

Dr Magufuli said this while inaugurating 20 hostel blocks at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). The Sh10 billion hostels took eight months to complete, and would accommodate a total of 3,840 students.

In his speech to students and members of the public at UDSM, the President decried the presence of ‘ghosts’ in public institutions.

He said: “The problem of ‘ghost people’ in this country is big. First, it was ghost workers, and we purged thousands of them, then thousands of ghost students, who were taking higher education loans. Now, we have civil servants with fake academic credentials,” said the President, “There are ghosts in every sector you touch, but their days are numbered.”

Dr Magufuli also used the forum to direct the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) to stay away from managing university admissions, and focus on being a custodian of quality and standards.

According to Dr Magufuli, the current TCU joint admission system has many flaws, including the fact that it doesn’t allow students to go universities of their choice.

“The system also (undeservedly) benefits institutions with lower standards because they are assured of receiving students from TCU, and since majority of them receive government sponsorship, they are assured of cash inflow, that is unacceptable,” he said adding, “we should let the students decide where they want to go for their studies; that way all institutions will strive to up their standards to the ones of UDSM in order to remain relevant.”

The President noted that there was no point of having 100 universities with questionable standards, while a few qualified universities could achieve the goal of providing good education.

“You might have 100 universities with the capacity of taking 50 students each, we shouldn’t be obsessed with the number of institutions; I believe we can have four institutions big enough, equipped enough to accommodate 100,000 students each.”

Speaking of quality and standards, the President directed the UDSM leadership to transfer all its medical students to Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (Muhas) once it relocates to Mloganzila campus.

“Teaching facilities here are not good enough for medical students. Establishing a medical school here while we have a well-equipped Muhas is losing direction and compromising quality,” noted Dr Magufuli who received all his three Chemistry degrees from UDSM.

President Magufuli’s standpoint on TCU echoes what the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Services and Community Development suggested in Parliament in February. The committee wanted the TCU to be stripped of the university admission role.

“TCU has now become an agent and lifeline of private universities, which are charging exorbitant fees. We highly recommend that the current system be scrapped to allow students to go to universities of their choice.

The commission should remain with the core duty of maintaining quality of education offered by local institutions of higher learning,” committee chairperson and Kigoma North MP (CCM) Peter Serukamba said as he tabled his committee’s annual report.

Meanwhile, Dr Magufuli also condemned the Thursday attack on police in Kibiti District.

Unknown assailants gunned down eight police officers in a highway ambush. He asked the crowd at the university to observe a minute of silence in honour of the fallen servicemen, and then ordered the relevant ministry to conduct a thorough investigation to identify and arrest the culprits.

At same occasion, the Minister for Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Prof Joyce Ndalichako, said the government had delivered on its promise to construct the hostels.

“Now it’s upon you to make good use of the facilities and study hard. We’ve provided you with better living conditions; you are now able to cut all the unnecessary costs that you were incurring in renting outside the university.”