Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi

The Minister of Home Affairs Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi has called on businessmen to invest in education by setting up various colleges and institutions to provide training for the youth.

The minister said the move will compliment government efforts in abolishing illiteracy and poverty in the country and empower more people economically.

Dr Nchimbi made the remark over the weekend when gracing the second graduation ceremony for Kibamba Teachers College where 83 students graduated.

The minister who is also a legislator for Songea constituency said the country is facing a shortage of teachers, calling for more efforts from both the government and business people in setting up more teacher training collages.

"The government has successfully built a number of primary and secondary schools boosting enrolment. This is a big challenge to the government. Perhaps there is a need now for business people to see how they can invest and do business in this sector," said Dr Nchimbi.

Dr Nchimbi instructed teachers to not forget their responsibilities, noting that there have been advertisements in the media outlets that ‘teaching is not a vocation’ but work like any other. “Teaching is a vocation. No one can deny this,” the minister said, adding that a teacher is responsible for nurturing a child to behave ethically.

Kasian Njooka, executive director of the college said the university is recruiting and training teachers at the level of diploma.

Since its establishment in 2009, he said, it was only training teachers at a level of grade 3A despite having registered to offer both grade 3A and Diploma.

For his part Ubungo legislator, John Mnyika challenged the government to look at ways of improving the welfare of teachers.