Managers and Owners of Non-government Schools and Colleges (Tamongsco) Secretary General Benjamin Nkonya
The Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners of Non-government
Schools and Colleges (Tamongsco) Secretary General Benjamin Nkonya told
The Guardian yesterday in a telephone interview when commenting on the
budget estimates for the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
2015/16 amounting to 989.6bn/-.
Nkonya said the budget set aside for the coming financial year is
sufficient but only if education finance management is improved.
“A mere increase in budget allocation to the education sector
without proper supervision will never help improve performance in public
schools,” he warned.
“Studies across the world indicate that the level of budgetary
allocation is not necessarily proportional to the quality of education
and conversely, the efficiency of education finance management is
directly related to the education quality,” he observed.
He added that the budget allocated for the education sector in
Tanzania is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa whose average is 20
per cent.
“However, Tanzania suffers more from poor public finance management syndrome that leads to poor value for money,” he said.
He gave an example of funds allocated for higher education students
loan board (HESLB) coupled with a policy of 100% loan for teachers.
“Without management this only resulted in more university entrants
taking advantage only to move to other better paying jobs after
graduation due to poor remuneration and working environment of
teachers,” he said.
“Such money could have been better used to improve teachers
remuneration and better working environment like building teacher houses
which could have served as an attractant for teachers in other jobs to
rejoin the teaching practice,” he said.
He was also of the view that based on this understanding,
increasing the budget without putting in place proper and convincing
policies to regulate the budget, the sector will not reach targeted
goals.
“For sure, we will not get out of this vicious circle if we cannot
change the education financing and management mechanism,” he cautioned.
“We should look into literature and see how developed countries
managed their education and resulted into the development that they have
now,” Konya insisted.
He advised the government to adopt the working practices of other
countries that may help cure the country’s paralyzed education system.
Furthermore, Nkonya advised the government to introduce an
education voucher system whereby the money for educating students passed
to parents before reaching schools, this will give parents freedom to
choose schools where to take their young ones for quality education.
He said the outcome of this is the creation of competition between
public and private schools that will result in the drastic improvement
of education quality and industrial revolution in the country.
“Tanzania needs to do something more serious than just increasing
budgetary allocation as this has not been able to improve the economic
status even in the economic giants like the US rather good education
financing management did,” he emphasised.
“The government has to adopt the use of education vouchers system to improve the quality of education,” he went on to urge.
Alongside the introduction of education vouchers and for the sake
of creating a fair playing ground between private and public education
providers, Nkonya proposed the establishment of a Tanzania Education
& Training Regulatory Authority (TETRA) which will regulate the
provision of education both in the public and private sector.
He said TETRA should replace the education ministry in the capacity
of regulating private schools because, in effect, the education
ministry is an education provider that needs to be regulated by another
higher authority.
“Having the ministry provide education and regulate at the same
time has already generated a conflict of interest that makes private
schools be disadvantaged,” he summed up.
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