President Samia stresses social progress

ZANZIBAR: PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday warned against child segregation in the admission of students to the just launched state-of-the-art pre-primary school in South Unguja, insisting that the facility is for all Islanders.

“This is a school for all Makunduchi children; it’s not for the few from privileged families,” Dr Samia said at the launch of Tasani Pre-Primary School in Makunduchi.

She called on Makunduchi parents to grab the opportunity and send their children to the school for preparatory learning ahead of primary school admission.

President Samia said construction of good pre-primary schools in the country is inevitable in the provision of decent care and education to children in the country.

She invited parents to take their children to preparatory schools ahead of primary education, saying pre-primary education is the basic foundation for proper upbringing of children.

President Samia thanked NMB Bank for the 800m/- investment in the school construction and invited other stakeholders to support educational initiative in the country. The school is christened ‘Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan Preparatory School.’

President Samia said the government recognises NMB’s significant contributions to national development through various social investment programmes across Tanzania.

The Head of State highlighted the bank’s commitment to improving people’s lives and its role in building a stronger nation.

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“And this has not only been in Zanzibar but across the whole of Tanzania,” she noted, emphasising that the school at Tasani, which comprises five modern classrooms for 40 pupils each, was a good example of the bank’s commitment to support improvement of social welfare in the country.

She advocated for proper and environmentally friendly cooking energies for the betterment of the environment, saying adoption of proper cooking energy in the country is inevitable.

Zanzibar Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Lela Muhamed Mussa said pre-primary education is compulsory in the islands and the government plans to construct 33 pre-primary schools in this financial year.

“Construction of these schools is soon scheduled to commence in all 11 districts; our new syllabus demands decent learning environment like this school,” said Minister Lela, thanking NMB for the support.

NMB Chief Executive Officer, Ruth Zaipuna said the bank has been paying back one per cent of its business profit through social projects, especially education and health.

“For us, this school is a symbol of hope and new dreams for our children. It is a place where they will build a solid education foundation that will help them in their future life,” she told Dr Samia, adding that to better cater for that, the construction cost of the centre had to be increased from the initial 600m/- to 800m/-.

The additional cost, Ms Zaipuna pointed out, took care of classroom and office furniture, a canteen and air-conditioning system in order to better both learning and teaching at the school.

Meanwhile, President Samia challenged Islanders to embrace their culture as one of the incentives to attract tourists in the country.

“Zanzibar is historically rich in cultural values, which attracts many tourists in the country. But recently we have snubbed our values…this is dangerous to our future,” said Dr Samia, maintaining that modernity will help the country in nothing.

The president, issuing certificates to entrepreneurship training students at Makunduchi’s Mwehe ground said: “Tourism is not about destroying our cultures. We have to attract tourists through highlighting our good things not modernity that destroys us.”

She advised the graduates to effectively use the acquired skills to advance their personal earnings and contribute to the nation’s economic growth.