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TEA should embark on promotion drive
2008-09-05 09:29:00
By Editor
One of the `youngest` players contributing most remarkably to the development of the education sector in our country is without doubt the Tanzania Education Authority.
It is a government agency out to serve as a pioneer in sustainably securing and deploying resources to make education better and more equitably accessible to our people.
More specifically, its operations centre on stimulating public awareness on and participation in activities aimed at expediting the development of education by supplementing efforts of other stakeholders directing funding into the sector.
Noble as these intentions may be, there are crippling bottlenecks in the fact that the main sources of the agency`s funds are annual government budgetary allocations and contributions by way of grants, loans, gifts, endowments and bequests.
Given the overwhelming demand there is for education and the fact that the government does not have enough financial and other resources to meet that demand, it is clear that TEA`s intervention cannot benefit as many people as many would expect.
Going by the occasions on which the intervention has been at play, the number of beneficiaries remains too negligibly low for comfort.
Small wonder, then, that there have been complaints or reservations to the effect that the authority is yet to abide by the ``equity`` component of its vision.
All the problems experienced notwithstanding, we stand believing that it would be unfair to heap the blame squarely on TEA`s shoulders.
For one thing, there is no evidence that the agency has defaulted on its responsibility of advising the government on ways to land new sources of revenue to ensure adequate and stable financing of education programmes.
Similarly, it is hard to say that the agency has failed with regard to its task of helping in the promotion of education and training in line with national development plans and policies.
TEA usually extends support in the form of grants and loans to formally registered public and privately owned educational institutions.
The most common ones are pre-primary, primary and secondary schools, technical and teachers` training colleges, universities and other institutions of higher learning, as well as what are generally referred to as regulatory bodies.
It is understood that among the areas TEA regards as most deserving of support are provision of teaching and learning materials like library facilities and supplies, and laboratory equipment and chemicals, human resource development, and curriculum development and review.
Also supported are the learning of science subjects by special groups like orphans, women and people with disabilities, the utilisation of ICT facilities, and research and development.
This is invaluable information which, if popularised, would make a lot of difference in our people`s lives.
But, alas, not much of it is that readily accessible to the citizenry.
TEA's self-avowed corporate values include commitment to exercising transparency in its operations and delivering quality services with professional competence, integrity and courtesy.
It is our profound hope that the agency will break out of its shell for its own good and the good of a nation eagerly awaiting its services.
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