A cross-section of Arusha residents and activists have decried poor education service delivery in the country, calling on the government and other stakeholders to take serious steps to redress the situation.

They aired their views here yesterday when speaking at a public dialogue which was attended by more than 500 people from Arusha municipality and Arumeru district hosted by a network of Arusha-based NGOs - Angonet.

“We need to work on this very seriously, because if left unchecked, there is a possibility that about ten years to come the country will have leaders, who scored division zero in their Form Four examinations,” said Jovita Mlay, an activist in the sector.

She said that the number of students scoring division zero in their national examinations has been increasing, while the government seemed to remain silent about the trend she described as “unacceptable”.

Mlay said that despite government efforts to ensure that children get secondary education, something seemed to go wrong somewhere, calling for serious intervention, especially in uplifting the quality and standard of education in ward secondary schools.

“In some schools there are no teachers, due to that students don’t study as they are supposed to,” another Arusha resident, Lazaro Juma said. He queried, “What do you expect from students, who have not been taught properly? It’s time for both of us, parents and the government, to address this challenge”.

Murieti resident from Arusha outskirts, Gasper Msolo, described the country’s education system, as too discriminative. “Poor people like me take their children to community schools which lack teaching and learning facilities…leaders take their kids to English medium and international schools and some leaders send their children for studies abroad,” he complained.

He described the current education system, as a ‘time bomb’, asking the government to work hard in addressing it before it was too late.

However, Arusha Municipal Council senior official William Muya said the government was doing a lot to improve education system in the country. “People should appreciate efforts being made by the government to boost education sector,” he stressed.

Angonet executive-secretary Peter Bayo said the forum provided locals and leaders in the two districts a platform to air their views on issues related to transparency and accountability of public leaders in managing country’s resources.