State considers disbursing hardship allowances to teachers

DODOMA: THE government has said that it will think on how to disburse hardship allowances to teachers who are deployed in the marginalized areas, the House was told here yesterday.

The revelation was made by Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Omary Kipanga, when fielding a question asked by Muleba South MP, Dr Oscar Kikoyo.

In his question, the Muleba South lawmaker said that some teachers were hesitating to report to their new duty stations due to their environment, fearing for their livelihoods.

“Some of our teachers have not been reporting to their stations because of the nature of those areas, therefore I want to know the government’s plans to ensure these newly deployed teachers including those already at those stations are given hardship allowances so that they can boost their teaching morale,’’ queried the MP.

In a quick response, the deputy minister said that his ministry had taken up the advice and that the government would soon look at how best to handle it.

In yet another supplementary question, Special Seats MP, Cecilia Paresso asked the Deputy Minister on how best the government was planning to effectively implement the newly introduced Education and Training Policy, 2023.

In response, the minister said that the implementation of the policy would be done in phases, whereby the government will be doing monitoring and evaluation before proceeding to the next phase.

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He underscored the need for the government to ensure that the policy was bringing revolution to the country’s education sector.

The 2023 Education and Training Policy has placed greater emphasis on developing skills that are relevant to the changing job market, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and digital literacy.

Recently, the Minister for Education, Science and Technology Professor Adolph Mkenda said in Dar es Salaam that the new policy endorsed by the cabinet in October last year, had started to be partially implemented.

“We have already started implementing the new policy since January 2024. There are huge changes that started for pre-primary, Standard One to three for primary schools and Form One for secondary schools,” said the minister.

Prof Mkenda said that in 2027 the government will come up with a double cohort procedure, where two groups will graduate from high school at the same time.

He said the new curriculum for Form One, is divided into two streams – vocational skills stream and general education stream, saying further changes will come in 2027, where the government will start implementing a compulsory ten-year system.