Does our education system at primary and secondary school levels prepare the young citizens to be farmers or business people? The answer is a definite no.
Yet, facts on the ground indicate that more Tanzanians are in farming and non-formal businesses than in any other sector.
Naturally, one would expect agriculture and business education to be a must subjects at least from the upper primary level.
Instead of our primary and secondary education system preparing the young citizens to enter modern farming and businesses, we dream of white-collar jobs.
Those who fail and fall along the way are the wayward, and the lucky to go to vocational training centres. Those who are completely unlucky will not even finish primary school education- and resign mostly to peasant farming or petty trade.
Our education system, inherited from the-colonial and post independence years for churning out civil servants has failed to take the realities of today’s Tanzania.
Almost every one of us, after school- we expect to be employed and not to go into business. The reality is the government and the public sector can’t absorb all the young graduates as it was in the first ten years of independence.
The private sector is constrained as well, and due to unhealthy business environment, it is not growing at the speed that can absorb all school leavers.
No wonder some leaders have been saying unemployment is a time bomb. Millions of youth, restless and with nothing to do for a source of income, are dangerous lot.
The more the unemployment number goes up, the more the danger of social unrest.
The elite, the political class and even the development partners seem to be helpless in the wake of the rising number of the unemployed.
The elite, the political class and even the development partners seem to be helpless in the wake of the rising number of the unemployed.
Whatever is being done at the top and bottom levels is not enough to tame the growing menace. Even if the economy was to grow at 15 per cent per year, it can’t be enough to absorb all graduates in formal employment, leave alone those who finish their education at primary and secondary levels.
The number of youths entering the job market is big. I expect the upcoming census to get staggering figures on this.
The problem with the economic growth that we have been experiencing in the last 15 years or so, is that on the other hand, poverty levels among the sections of the people has been on the increase. That is the paradox of Tanzania.
The problem with the economic growth that we have been experiencing in the last 15 years or so, is that on the other hand, poverty levels among the sections of the people has been on the increase. That is the paradox of Tanzania.
Usually any economic growth that does not directly affect or improve lives of the majority populace creates huge gaps between the rich and the poor.
We don’t need this in Tanzania. Fair distribution of wealth that results from the available natural resources will make our country a better nation.
Policy makers know what the common people do for a living. The government is aware that the world today is private sector driven.
So it must take steps to prepare young citizens to enter the private sector world as business people and modern farmers.
The set up must begin in the primary and secondary school syllabi. We are living in a global village and the reality of East African integration is there for all to see.
Children in some neighbouring countries are being taught agriculture and business education. If we don’t act, history will judge us harshly and despite all our natural resources, we will remain poor people.
Saumu Jumanne is an Assistant Lecturer, Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE).
Saumu Jumanne is an Assistant Lecturer, Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE).
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