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Good accommodation will motivate teachers
2007-05-22 08:55:48
By Editor
There are indications that, should things work to plan, the Education and Vocational Education ministry`s budgetary allocation for the 2007/08 financial year will be the biggest ever.
If the government has its way, it will spend more on capital development this time around by building decent houses for teachers in government primary schools.
Reports say some 10bn/- has been requested for the work and officials at the ministry have already earmarked regions traditionally loathed by public servants as work stations as the first beneficiaries.
The ministry`s policy machinery has correctly argued that decent accommodation could be an alternative incentive for teachers posted to ``disadvantaged`` regions like Coast, Lindi, Mtwara and Rukwa.
It is quite likely that this strategy will work very well in the short term, as the government endeavours to reconcile some of the recent contradictions that arose in the course of implementation of the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP).
In many remote places, PEDP managed to put up modern and attractive classrooms, complete with secure corrugated aluminium sheet roofs.
There is no doubt that this kind of development offers an ideal environment for an effective teaching-learning process, on condition that all other related aspects to the process are well taken care of as well.
No one would deny that it was funny for PEDP to provide what could be said to be close to posh classrooms but let teachers continue to languish in thatched huts at times located quite far away from school premises.
The ensuing paradox rested on the quality of the progamme’s planning and implementation, as teachers had not been thought of as among the major beneficiaries of the initiative.
Logic defies this approach to PEDP because teachers, just like other civil servants and the rest of humankind, need comfortable accommodation to perform effectively.
In the short run, it may look wise to start providing teachers` accommodation in the said remote areas.
Over the longer run, however, the ministry`s budgets should be made to reflect progressive schemes for building teachers` residential houses in every district.
Over and above that, extra incentives should be designed, which could partly be in some form of hardship allowances for teachers volunteer to serve their nation in remote areas.
In some other places of Africa, soft loans have been given to teachers ready to have their first appointment be in far-flung areas.
The funds are tied to the construction of residential houses, which in turn act as collateral for getting bank loans.
When it comes selling off government houses to civil servants, it would be a wonderful idea to consider teachers among the frontline beneficiaries.
Although teachers comprise more than 40 per cent of the civil service, there is hardly any who landed a government house during the controversial sell-off exercise that has since been halted.
Teachers are such a forgotten lot but their services are jewellery during general elections.
Whether it is for their accuracy in, or love for, counting ballot papers, they too deserve decent accommodation.
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