THE government directed the health higher education training institutions to adopt the new harmonized curriculum to have quality graduates and common competencies.

Prof Peter Msoffe, the  Director of Higher Education at the Ministry for  Education, Science and Technology said this in Dar es Salaam yesterday when opening the Grand Symposium and launching of Tanzania Health Educators  Academy (THEA).

He said the Health Transforming Partnership Initiative to reach people: Transforming Health Professional Education in Tanzania (THET) - is a five-year funded project aimed at transforming the education environment for doctors and nurses in Tanzania to deliver quality care for improved health outcomes.

Prof Msoffe said that the new harmonized curricula are just one of the numerous achievements realized by the THET project over the past five years adding that it was a beacon of hope and progress paving the way for future medical and nursing graduates.

Prof Msoffe said in 2016, a Joint Medical and Dental Councils of East Africa Audit faulted the quality of medical education in Tanzania and recommended that the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) oversee the harmonization of undergraduate medical curricula.

He said TCU urged to take immediate action to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the Joint Audit team and support the development of a harmonized medical curriculum for the training of medical doctors in Tanzania.

The director clarified that although the directives were for Medical Doctor programmes, the problem existed in all other health professions programmes in Colleges and Universities.

“I therefore urge all Health Higher Learning Institutions in the country to join, support and be part of the scaling up of what has been accomplished through this initiative, which I believe is a good start in addressing some of the challenges that TCU and Professional Councils have been working on in recent years,” he said.

Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) Vice Chancellor Prof Apollinary Kamuhabwa said THEA represents a commitment to the continuous professional development of health educators in Tanzania.

He said it will serve as a center of excellence offering training, resources, and support to health professions educators across the country, ensuring that they remain at the forefront of health professions education.

Prof Gideon Kwesigabo, Principal Investigator said the project was implemented by a consortium of three Health Universities namely MUHAS, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences-(CUHAS), and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College-KCMUCu and the two United States-based universities namely Duke University and University Of California San Francisco.

He said that one of the big challenges has been the lack of harmonized teaching curricula for health professionals' disciplines offered in different training institutions of higher learning.