|
Debating HakiElimu adverts, instead of revamping education sector
2007-07-16 09:51:44
By Rayner Ngonji
The debate on HakiElimu operations is on. This time with a call to monitor its activities and if there is need, get it registered as a political party.
A Member of Parliament for Kongwa constituency in Dodoma region, Job Ndugai described the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO)`s adverts aired on radio stations and screened on TV stations as biased and aimed at frustrating the government’s efforts in offering quality education.
Deliberating on estimates of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training for 2006/07 fiscal year, the legislator said the adverts were a threat to the survival of the government.
Another MP Janet Masaburi, Special Seats (CCM) claimed that even the children themselves did not like the adverts because they create a social stratum between children of the haves and those of the have not`s.
Haki Elimu is a pressure group operating under the umbrella of the Registrar of Societies as an NGO.
This entails that it’s first and foremost role is to carry out checks and balances in relation to government operations and policies.
When you talk of health, education, agriculture automatically you are touching politics, who gets what, when and how.
So what HakiElimu has been doing is to ensure that government policies relating to education are implemented according to the approved plans.
Under whatever circumstances pressure groups are definitely not obliged to keep quiet if at all government is not in tune with certain policies.
They are evidently not bound to remain quiet otherwise they will defeat objectives of their existence as pressure groups.
The message that our esteemed MPs are trying to put across is that problems being aired do not exist.
This is unquestionably heretic; how do they wish away all these problems?
Are our primary school classrooms for example not heavily congested to an extent of others sitting on the bare floor?
Is it not a fact that paying teachers` salaries on time is a problem such that teachers are forced to abandon their classes for three to five days sometimes even a week or more in pursuit of their salaries?
Is it not a fact that the quality of our education has drastically declined, even to unimaginable proportions, such that a standard seven pupil doesn`t know his or her Education Minister leave alone the capital of an African country like Mali?
Surely, any reasonable person wouldn’t cry foul for Hakielimu to carry footages depicting the actual scenarios of these situations? Isn’t not doing so amounting to deceiving ourselves?
What the honourable MPs could have done would be to come up with strategies of dealing with outstanding problems.
Our MPs have been trying to make society believe that everything is perfect as far as the education sector is concerned.
They have even sought to implicate school children alleging that they are not interested in Hakielimu activities.
Was the MP presenting an actual portrayal of the real situation?
Does he know of any pupil who would rather sit on the floor rather than on a school desk?
With the poor infrastructure we are saddled with, no doubt problems affecting different sectors including education abound.
Seeking to hide the situation, or sentiments about it by whatever intrigues doesn’t help but rather worsens the situation.
When things are out of hand it will be difficult to embark on a witch hunt, so it is better to work on their remedies now.
Maybe the best solution on the HakiElimu dispute is to conduct an open debate incorporating all education stakeholders including pupils, where participants present the pros and cons of the NGO`s messages.
ngonji@guardian.co.tz
|
