Monday, August 3, 2015
Kawnzige primary School standard two pupils sitting in their classroom
waiting for teacher to taught. Kawnzige is the best number one in
standard seven national examination at Mpanda Municipal in Katavi
region. PHOTO| FILE
Arusha. Poverty could be the
reason behind the falling educational standards in East Africa,
according to a member of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala)
from Kenya Judith Pareno.
“What then if not education
will the poor hold onto?”, she asked during a recent presentation of a
report to Eala by a regional civil society think-tank Twaweza on the
state of education in the region.
She went on; “Does it
mean that all the poor should move into the cities for their children
to learn? The legislator noted that the debate on whether poverty was
solely to blame should be sustained.
Another regional
lawmaker from Kenya Abubakar Zein partly agrees, arguing that the East
African region needed to rid itself of discrimination in education when
it comes to women and children from the poor families.
Ms
Hafsa Mossi, a legislator from Burundi and a former radio broadcaster
said she was worried by increasing number of school girls dropping out
of school due to pregnancies and early marriages.
But
she minced no words that she was equally concerned over inability of
graduates to express themselves. She stressed the EAC partner states to
take deliberate measures to improve the quality of education.
Leonce
Ndarubagiye, an Eala member from Burundi said there were all
indications that the education standards (in Africa) low compared to in
Europe and other western countries were better than in African
continent.
“Is it that Africans do not have good
teachers and good schools or what are we lacking”, he pondered, adding
that bad performance in many schools in Africa were a result of
corruption, poverty and lack of motivation in the education sector.
He
challenged the governments and the private sector to highly motivate
the teachers and motivators. Ms Patricia Hajabakiga (Rwanda) called for
increased budget in the education sector.
Eala Speaker
Daniel Kidega, for his part, called for urgent measures to raise the bar
on education standards and to maintain quality control as the EAC
strives in its quest to harmonize curricula.
He made
the remarks when he received a delegation of officials from a regional
civil society body, Twaweza, led by the Executive Director, Aidan
Eyakuze during which a report on the state of literacy and numeracy in
the region was launched.
The findings of the report
dubbed; ‘Are our Children Learning – Literacy and Numeracy Across East
Africa’ were later shared to members of the regional Parliament.
The report presents evidence from data collected in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in the year 2013.
In
all three countries, the Uwezo Assessment reached a total of 326,610
children aged between 6-16 years in 366 districts and was carried out in
a random sample of about 150,000 households.
For every
household, a short set of questions was administered to collect basic
information. The enumerators then recorded details about the child
whether he/she attends school and which grade.
Mbeya
District in Tanzania was ranked first out of the 366 districts where the
research was done with a mean pass rate of 86.1 per cent on combined
test for all children aged between 10-16 years while Gatundu District in
Kenya, took second position with 85 per cent.
Nyeri
North (Kenya), Nairobi and Laikipia East complete the first top five
spots on the regional log respectively. Kampala District which tops in
Uganda is placed at position 82 regionally with a mean score of 64.7 per
cent.
Bukoba Urban comes second in Tanzania and 12th
regionally with 79.7 per cent and is followed in 3rd position by Arusha
District which ranks 19th in the regional bar.
In
Uganda, Mbarara takes the 2nd position nationally and is placed at
number 118 regionally while, Wakiso District at position 121 regionally
is 3rd in the national ranking.
According to the
Report, two out of three pupils enrolled in Standard 3 in East Africa do
not have Standard 2 level literacy or numeracy skills.
Even
more worrying is the fact that one out of four Standard 7 pupils do not
have Standard 2 literacy and numeracy skills. The Report states that
about 25 per cent of Standard 7 children remain unable to pass the
literacy and numeracy UWEZO tests set at the Standard 2 level.
The
collection of data was led by Twaweza Director, Dr John Mugo (Kenya),
Team Leader, Dr Mary Goretti Nakabugo (Uganda) and Country Co-ordinator,
Ms Zaida Mgalla (Tanzania).
Presenting the findings,
Dr Nakabugo reiterated the need for a strong foundation ineducation
noting that was the only way to sustainable education.
“It is shocking that students in University are failing to construct simple sentences,” the don stated.
Twaweza
Kenya Country Co-ordinator, Dr Emmanuel Manyasa stressed the need to
have value in money spent in the education sector while Zaida Mgalla,
Country Co-ordinator, Twaweza, Tanzania, said it was not time to
celebrate the soaring enrollment levels but rather that it was key to
have children stay in school and to learn.
According to
the Twaweza Executive Director, Mr Eyakuze, focus in region should be
on learning and quality.The progress made to increase access and gender
parity is to be commended”,.
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