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Kikwete unhappy with local engineers` numbers
2008-09-06 09:55:52
By Felister Peter
President Jakaya Kikwete has said it will take years for Tanzania to attain remarkable socio-economic development if the number of qualified registered engineers remains the same.
The President said this yesterday when addressing engineers during the 6th Engineers Registration Board (ERB) anniversary held in Dar es Salaam.
Kikwete said that Tanzania had very few qualified engineers compared to other countries.
He said with the current population ratio of almost 40 million people and 8,000 engineers, a single engineer had to serve 5,000 people, while in Japan, a single engineer served 54 people only.
He said the only way to increase the number of engineers was through improved education.
He said more efforts were directed towards secondary education, whereby students would be encouraged to study science subjects.
``Our aim in the coming future is to produce 100,000 engineers per year. We are currently producing 500 engineers per year while China produces 600,000 and India 300,000 annually``, said the President.
He said to start with, the government had increased the secondary school intake from 150,000 to 450,000 while the number of secondary schools had risen from 1,200 to 3,900.
Kikwete said the major problem that hindered the government`s efforts in getting enough students to undertake engineering courses in the local universities was lack of science teachers and laboratories.
The President also underscored the importance of engineers going back to school, saying technology changes every day.
``It reaches a time when a certain registered engineer does not meet the required qualities, and should be deregistered,`` he said.
He stressed on cooperation between engineers and contractors.
Kikwete decried the habit of some contractors of employing unqualified engineers so as to maximise profit.
The President said such attempts had resulted into the crumbling of buildings, a scenario which damaged the image of Tanzanian engineers internationally.
The ERB Chairman, Engineer Ninatubu Lema, requested the government to give priority to local engineers before rewarding tenders to foreign ones.
Engineer Lema said there was a shortage of young engineers in the country. Most of the 8,000 qualified engineers available today are more than 50 years old and some of them are about to retire, he said.
The minister for Infrastructure Development Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, who also attended the function, said the country was facing a challenge of improving its infrastructure.
Dr Kawambwa said that Tanzania had a total of 85,000 road kilometers while more than 75,000 kilometers were not tarred.
He said engineers were the best people to develop the country`s infrastructure.
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