Revealed : 371 pupils share one ICT tool in Tanzania

Dar es Salaam. As the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology pushes its strategy of distributing ICT equipment to schools, government data reveals a severe shortage of such equipment in public learning institutions.

According to data by the National Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania (BEST) 2021 for both primary and secondary public schools, one ICT equipment of any kind is shared by 371 pupils and 85 students respectively.

To tackle the above scenario, the government, through the Education ministry, is convinced that the need for technology use in student learning is inevitable and thus the need to equip schools, teacher training colleges and quality supervisors with ICT equipment.

In his recent comments, Prof Adolf Mkenda, the education minister, the distribution of ICT equipment was a key government resolve to invest and manage ICT use to stimulate the economy and keep pace with technological demands of the educational sector.

Under this endeavour, equipment already distributed include 3,354 computers of which 1,637 are laptops and 1,717 desktop computers, 12 printing machines, 12 projectors and 12 internet switches which have been procured by the government and other education stakeholders.

Of those computers, Prof Mkenda said, 1,337 laptops were under the Covid-19 recovery programme, that is, a project aimed at improving safety and curbing Covid-19 infections.

He said the computers would be distributed to quality assurance officers and ward education officers to improve their performance, while computer processes would help simplify operations; information and data management.

He noted that another batch of equipment including 1,717 desktop computers, 300 laptops, 12 printing machines, 12 Projectors and 12 internet switches have been provided by the UK’s initiative ‘Digital Pipeline’ and will be distributed to primary, secondary and teacher training colleges.

The ministry has also distributed IT equipment: 1,120 desktops, 413 laptops and 186 projectors in all 35 government teaching colleges.

These materials, according to Prof Mkenda, were distributed to help reduce the ratio of computer use for students from 28 students to one computer (28: 1) to two students per computer (2: 1) in colleges.

“The aim of the distribution of these materials is to ensure that the preparation of teachers is also modern and in line with the development of Science and Technology,” he said, calling on other education stakeholders to support the government’s efforts.

But, BEST 2021 statistics have shown that in both primary and secondary public schools one ICT equipment of any kind is shared by 371 pupils and 85 students respectively.

Among the 28,786 ICT equipment in primary public schools were tablets or smartphones by 38 percent, laptop computers by 18 percent, desktops by 15 percent, radio (15 percent), TV sets (three percent), projectors (three percent), photocopy machines (three percent) and printers (three percent).

Public schools

Mtwara has 3,732 ICT equipment for its public primary schools. With the number of students in the region, it means 76 students share one piece of equipment. With a total of 677 schools each of them having an average of five to six equipment.

On the other hand, 120 students share a single piece of equipment in Kilimanjaro, the second best among public schools by region. The region had 2,112 ICT tools and 253,649 pupils with 876 primary public schools which is the ratio of two ICT tools in every school.

However, 1,383, 449 and 36 students in Geita, Songwe and Rukwa respectively share one ICT equipment. This is the worst average in all regions.

The Citizen analysis shows one in every four public primary schools do not have any ICT tools in Geita, only one in two schools in Njombe and one in three schools in Rukwa lacked the equipment.

Secondary schools

The situation is different in public secondary schools where ICT tools for secondary school in the report are clarified as Deck or DVD, desktop computers, laptop computers, photocopier, printer, projector, radio, smartphone or tablets and television.

Data shows there are 28,005 ICT tools in public secondary schools. With a total of 2,526 ICT tools in public secondary schools, Kilimanjaro leads all regions with more tools. A total of 106,513 students were enrolled in 2021, meaning one tool is shared by 42 students in 345 schools found in the region and every school has seven ICT tools.

In Arusha, 43 students share one tool, the region enrolled 112,650 students in 259 public schools. It had a total of 2,640 ICT tools which means there is an average of 10 ICT tools in every secondary school.

Meanwhile, 154, 152 and 149 students in Shinyanga, Songwe and Geita regions share a single ICT tool respectively.

Analysis shows each secondary school in Shinyanga had three to four pieces of equipment while in Songwe there are two or three and four to five in Geita.

Conducive?

According to the programme manager for Tanzania Education Network (TEN / MET), Mr Nicodemus Shauri, the public school environment is still not conducive for technology investment.

“It is often difficult for the use of ICT in public schools due to unfriendly infrastructure including lack of electricity but also teachers do not have technical knowhow on these devices,” he told The Citizen.

He added that education policy addresses the use of ICT in its provision to all students, “its application would help to improve and simplify the effectiveness of our education.”

An educational consultant based in Dar es Salaam, Dr Moses Rutehabwa, argued that the goodwill shown by the government provides an opportunity for donors and other organisations to support the venture in schools even if not once.

“It is easy to say it is impossible by looking at the environment, but the willingness to change that we see within the Ministry of Education, is an attraction for development donors. So let’s not give up, it is possible,” he believed.