This second brief looks at the quality of education the children are receiving, and the environment that they receive it in. The findings of this report reveal both the condition of the education, and the attitude of the children towards the education.
First, the attitude towards education remains positive regardless of the challenges that comes with it. This includes, teacher student ratio, lack of text books, just to mention a few, as the government continues to work hard in building more school buildings, so more children can have access to education.
Secondly, is the issue of English being the language of instruction in secondary schools supposed to Kiswahili. This debate comes and goes, but there have been no consensus on the issue. The research looks at how this issue impacts the quality of education that the children are receiving.
With more to take into consideration while examining the state of education, one has to ask. Who should be examined first, the students who have to sit for examinations, to test their knowledge, or should the schools be examined first to test the quality of education they are providing to the children? And this is not the chicken or the egg question; therefore, what do you think needs to come first?
Here is the second batch of reports from Tamasha Vijana (Click on the images to read [respective] reports):
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Hivi kuhusu swala zima la kufundisha kwa kutumia kiswahili. If all the text books used in secondary schools are translated into Kiswahili, or we start from scratch making our own text books in Kiswahili.
Are there any rough estimates on costs involved?…copyrights, translations…etc. I was thinking, just because Quantum mechanics is translated into Kiswahili, doesnt make it any easier…lol..maybe thats an extreme example.
But in my opinion, they can start with one subject, maybe Physics for secondary schools will be taught in kiswahili and see if they are any improvements as many report claim. Then they can move to other subjects.
Ila I doubt if we have the vocabulary for the translations. Think abt it, Kikaririsho = Computer, E-mail = Barua pepe,..
Here’s an interesting presentation about the LOI question by Prof. Qorro: http://bit.ly/jmg1dK
Nobody is too old to learn something new and this prof needs to learn to make presentations which are more -should i say- interactive?
I’m still concerned with the plans to roll-out a video-conferencing-type of education for Tanzanian schools. That is, to solve the lack of teachers problem, we invest more into buying PCs, Projectors etc for schools in the periphery and teach youngsters via video-conferencing using teachers in the urban-centres. I tried to search for numbers regarding the costs in such a project but my estimates suggest that it might be more rewarding if we invest more into the basics/traditional ways of teaching – to have better teacher salaries/bonuses/housing, better student learning resources and developing an apt curriculum.