Education

The crucial importance of education in any development process cannot be gainsaid. In every sector of the economy education is key to sectoral vibrancy and progress. BUDEFO is very much alive to this reality, hence its decision to set great store by the revamping of education. Its dream is to reclaim Kagera’s lost glory which it enjoyed several decades ago when it ranked as one of the most educated regions in Tanzania. With the active support of the key stakeholders including the government as well as the community at large, this dream is realizable.

The current state of education in Kagera leaves a lot to be desired. Infrastructure is woefully inadequate and largely tumble-down because of years of neglect. Science and mathematics teachers are hard to come by in most schools, so much so that in some schools one would be hard put to find a single qualified science or mathematics teacher. To fill the gaps, schools are making do with volunteers, most of whom are secondary school dropouts. The dearth of teaching materials is yet another challenge that’s hobbling effective teaching and learning. In short, the overall delivery of education is not up to snuff.

BUDEFO, through its Directorate of Education, has an intervention programme which has started with initiatives that are easily implementable and likely to contribute to education services improvement in the region. Those include organizing stakeholders’ symposia to identify the challenges and chart the way forward; collecting from donors such materials as used books, laboratory equipment and computers and distributing them to schools; producing science and mathematics DVDs and electronic books for distribution to schools; promoting cooperation among neighbouring schools in different localities with a view to generating synergies and optimizing the use of their collective resources; sensitizing village governments to mobilize their people to solve some of the challenges that are within their power, like building latrines and providing porridge to the pupils for elevenses so as to afford them a second wind.

In the medium and long terms, BUDEFO hopes to find partners it can work with to tackle those challenges which demand substantial resources. These include, skills upgrade for teachers especially the science ones a comprehensive remedial programme based on a baseline study, digital literacy and IT training, establishing several vocational training centres for school dropouts, establishing libraries which are currently lacking in schools, and promoting extracurricular activities like sports as a means of imparting a fully rounded education.