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[TD="class: kaziBody, align: left"]Church plans to improve quality education
By DASSU STEPHEN in Mwanza, 9th November 2011 @ 16:00, Total Comments: 0, Hits: 92
A RECENT report shows that it is only 30 per cent of the schools run by the Catholic church in the country that provide quality education, thanks to a qualified number of teachers and modest resources to manage such learning institutions.
Various stakeholders have started raising concerns, charging that a massive failure of students, particularly in the final Form Four national examinations, is a threat to the future development of the nation, and therefore experts call for the need of all key players to take necessary measures to reverse if not arrest the trend.
That was a major focus of a two-day workshop that took place in Mwanza city just a few days ago. The workshop was attended by the Bishops and heads of the Catholic secondary schools. The participants deliberated on matters related to improving quality of education. The Dar es Salaam Archbishop, Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, reiterates the need for the Church to provide quality education that satisfies needs of a contemporary society. The soft spoken Cardinal said:
"The education we provide to the people, for example, should be geared to produce people with both excellent academic knowledge and moral values. "The same people should be able to serve this nation with a high degree of diligence, commitment, integrity and responsibility."
"Let us discuss as a nation on how we can improve the quality of our education so that we can
have a learned society that can effectively address the social, economical and political challenges facing our country and the world at large. We should, for example, ask ourselves:Why do we have learned people in the society, and yet vices such as corruption remain so pervasive?," he was quoted as telling the participants.
It should be recalled that pursuant of evangelization mission, since it set its foot in Africa, established secular education at all levels of the education system. In Tanzania the Catholic
Church owned and managed primary, secondary, vocational and tertially level schools even before the country gained independence from colonial rule in 1961.
The education system provided by the Church was highly reputable for its quality, and its graduates were renowned for their knowledge and skills in various spheres in the country. Experts say the influence of the Church in the Tanzania education sector was for a period of 30 years overshadowed by the government's decision to nationalize the provision of social services particularly provision of education.
However, with liberalization of provision of social services which came in the wake of enactment of Education Amendment Act of 1995, the Catholic Church in Tanzania revitalized its efforts to provide education services at all levels. Establishment of secondary schools has since the liberalization policy increased. Whereas in 1998 the Church had only 138 secondary schools, it has now more than 200 secondary schools across the country.
However, there has been concerns that some of these schools are not performing very well while a few of them with excellent performance are also seen moving astray from the mission and vision of the Church in the provision of social services in the society. "We are now witnessing some of our schools charge exorbitant school fees, while others are gradually becoming schools for the elites.
I think this contradicts the mission of the Church," said one of the participants. The SAUT Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs (DVCAA), Dr Pius Mgeni, says lack
of financial resources, poor management, poor teaching skills and inadequate teaching staff are some of the major factors that contribute to poor perfomance of more than 60 per cent of the Catholic secondary schools.
"Most of the secondary schools had poor supply of textbooks, while the majority of secondary schools, except seminaries and schools run by Religious men and women, performed poorly in the 2007 national O level and A level examinations. On the other side, the study also revealed that where good management and leadership existed, the performance of schools was really exemplary, explained Dr Mgeni.
Other observers noted that there is also a huge gap between the owners of the schools (Bishops) and the managers who oversee the day to day activities of these schools. "It has also come to light that most of the Bishops who are real owners of the schools, are
far away from the management of these schools... It is high time that we do something on how to properly manage our schools," says the Saint Augustine university of Tanzania
(SAUT) Vice- Chancellor, Dr Charles Kitima.
"The fees structure has also been a major stumbling block for some of the students to join the schools. Apart from seminaries which receive subsidies from the Holy See, other well performing Catholic secondary schools are charging high fees (up to 700,000/-) which make it difficult for children from poor families to get access to these schools," said one of the participants.
Officials say some Dioceses and religious congregations control the fee structure in order to allow students from poor families to join the schools. But this control lacks quality assurance mechanism as teachers are not well professionally prepared and motivated. Observers say there is every reason for the determination by the Church to regain its reputation the Catholic secondary schools had prior to and soon after independence before education
sector was nationalized:
"Since provision of quality secular education is a means toward development of people and evangelization, thus improving quality of education cannot be emphasized," says the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) chairperson, Reverend Severin Niwemugizi.
Reverend Niwemugizi says the Church has unequivocally resolved to offer quality services to the society, and one of these services is quality education," I think we need to be a learning organization, and also ensure that we satisfy demands for quality of education to the people by involving all key players, such as the government, parents, teachers and students.
We need to apply the total quality management skills and techniques in order to reach this goal," he said. Cardinal Polycarp Pengo says that quality education should mean more than just acquiring academic knowledge, and for this reason, he says, the schools should not only impart academic knowledge, but also inculcate a sense of moral values, responsibility, nationalism, respect for human dignity, and promotion of the national peace and harmony.
"Our schools strive to create enabling environment to slow learners so that they can also perform well in the schools.We have also a sole responsibility to ensure children from poor families (who cannot afford to pay for the schools fees) are given neccessary support to join the schools," said Dr Kitima.
"It is true that we still have a positive reputation of providing quality education in the country.The question is: For how long are we going to maintain this reputation?" querried Dr Mgeni.[/TD]
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