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Govt appeals for more partnership in education delivery
2007-08-18 09:44:35
By Austin Beyadi
Demand for education is steadily increasing compared to availability of resources to meet it, the government has admitted.
Speaking at the University of Dar es Salaam 14th Annual Consultative Meeting held in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Naomi Katunzi, said the government was doing its best to expand infrastructure to enhance access and improve the quality of education.
`It is also high time we started contributing to the education sector for our children at all levels so that the quality of education can be improved,` she said.
She said while education would continue to assume a higher priority in resource allocation at all levels, society`s attitude towards financing tertiary and higher education should radically change.
As a response to increased education demand, she said the government had established the University of Dodoma, which had the capacity to accommodate 40,000 students in about ten years to come.
`We encourage stakeholders in different sectors of the economy to mobilise resources and establish universities,` she added.
She appealed to non-governmental organisations, religious education bodies, individuals and the private sector to actively participate in the improvement of the country’s education sector.
On its part, she added, the government had been trying to initiate alternative ways of funding education, and higher education in particular.
Katunzi called on universities—public and government-owned to be innovative in sourcing out more funds from internal and external development partners to support the sector.
`Self-generated income could and should be spent in such a way that it bridges the budget gaps,` she said.
The ministry of higher education science and technology and the entire government, according to the PS, view education particularly higher education a crucial ingredient and supportive tool for national development.
`No country in today`s world can dare think about development without thinking about how to develop the education sector,` she observed.
The government had already increased education budget in the 2007/8 to expand key education infrastructures, and enhance access to improved and quality education.
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