THE opposition ACT-Wazalendo has advised the government to allocate a budget of 50.2bn/- to create more employment opportunities for 6,500 teachers for primary, secondary and teachers’ training colleges annually for five years to address shortage of teachers in the country.

Hamidu Bobali, ACT Wazalendo Shadow Minister for Education, Science and Technology, said this in a recent statement on the party’s analysis of the budget plan for the ministry of education, science and technology for the financial year 2024/25 after it was tabled in parliament.

Bobali said the country should no longer be plagued by the shortage of teachers while there are 180,000 youth graduates from teachers’ training colleges who are unemployed.

“Statistics for the 2023/24 financial year show that Tanzania has scarcity of 279,202 teachers for primary, secondary and schools for pupils with special needs. There is decrease of 186,325 teachers in primary schools, which is equal to 51.44 percent higher compared to 36.7 percent in 2022/23; a total of 89,932 teachers for secondary schools which is 51.3 percent higher than 47 percent recorded in 2022/23 and a shortage of 2,945 teachers for schools for pupils with special needs, lower than 4,462 which is the required number of teachers,” he said.

The shadow minister said the government should strive to employ at least 5,000 tutors and lecturers to address the demand for teachers in colleges and universities.

He said despite the government’s reports that school enrolment has increased; there is still an increase in the number of school dropouts as many pupils do not complete standard seven and form four.

“The report by the controller and auditor general for the year 2021/22 showed that between 2015 and 2021, 11 councils had 19,945 pupils (25 percent) out of 78,786 who were registered in 2015 who did not complete standard seven. It also showed that 22,039 pupils (28 percent) out of 82,236 pupils who joined form one in 2018 did not sit for their form four national exams,” he said.

“In our analysis, we have discovered that there is a major surge in pupils dropping out of school before standard four and form two exams. For stance; for two years- 2021 and 2022- there were more than 240,000 pupils who did not sit for standard four tests while more than 55,211 pupils did not sit for their form two exams despite being registered to write the same.”

The opposition party requested the government to ensure female pupils who were impregnated to be allowed to complete their studies as part of implementation of the re-entry programme.

ACT Wazalendo called on the government to completely address child abuse to ensure children have the freedom to participate and acquire education.

It added that the government should also improve learning infrastructure and build schools near residential areas, and called on parents to ensure children have access to education and complete their studies as required.