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Mukoba: Failure to meet teachers` demands cause of exams leakage
2008-10-11 10:22:52
By Hannah Mwandoloma
The Tanzania Teachers` Union (TTU) president Gratian Mukoba has said the failure by government to fulfill the teachers` demands is one of the reasons that lead students to solely depend on stolen examinations.
Speaking to journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam Mukoba claimed that their decision to hold a country wide strike would make a difference in the exams leakage problem if the government would give teachers their rights.
``If the teachers are hungry they will definitely produce students who are ignorant; and who at the end of the day loose confidence and rely on stolen exams,`` he said.
Mukoba said leakage means students have not gained what they were supposed to get in classrooms.
He noted that such behaviour starts from the lower levels to higher levels, the problem that could affect also the entire generation or generations.
``My worry is that we are creating a nation of \'fake professionals\', because if these students pass because of stolen exams, that means the nation will be led by non confident people who were not well educated from their roots,`` he said.
He however insisted that the October 15 strike is still on, noting that those who are supervising examinations will join them after they have done with the supervision.
Mukoba said the government excuse of conducting verification is not strong enough to make them stop the strike, adding that there were other issues that did not need verification of any kind.
For his part, TTU national treasurer Mohamed Utaly said that teachers were subjected to waste a lot of time travelling to the headquarters to make a follow up of their payments leaving students behind without anyone to teach them.
``A teacher from Singida coming all the way to Dar es Salaam just because the government has not done its responsibility is causing a great harm academically to students since a lot of time is wasted in the cause of the travel,`` said Utaly.
The Union`s Vice President, Honoratha Chitanda, explained that one of the teachers` complaints was delayed salaries, which she said did not need any verification.
In August, the Education and Vocational Training ministry permanent secretary, Hamis Dihenga, told the press in Dar es Salaam that the government sat up a committee to verify the figures.
Dihenga promised the teachers that the government was determined to solve the problem so that the teachers could do their duties well, adding that the settlement of debts would depend on the availability of funds.
He said from July last year to July this year, the government had received claims amounting to 7.2bn in salary arrears, transfers, holiday and practical allowances, medical treatment claims and some from newly employed teachers.
According to him, the government has paid 4.3bn/-, just above half of the total claims and the remaining 2.9bn/- wouild be paid in the 2008/2009 financial year.
He added that 7.16bn/- was also given to all municipal councils to pay primary school teachers after verifying their demands.
Mukoba had earlier said that if one teacher would not get his or her allowances all would still go on strike until their demands were met.
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