Serikali yatoa siku saba walimu kupewa posho

http://www.jameszenavigator.blogspot.com/serikali-yatoa-siku-saba-walimu-walipwe-posho.html

Waziri wa Nchi, Ofisi ya Rais (Utumishi na Utawala Bora), Angella Kairuki

SERIKALI imetoa siku saba kwa ajili ya halmashauri zote kuhakikisha walimu wa hesabu, sayansi na wataalamu wa maabara waliopangwa hivi karibuni wanapewa posho za kujikimu.

Waziri wa Nchi, Ofisi ya Rais (Utumishi na Utawala Bora), Angella Kairuki alitoa kauli hiyo bungeni jana wakati akijibu swali la nyongeza la Mbunge wa Ukerewe, Joseph Mkundi (Chadema). Mkundi alitaka kujua ni lini serikali itawalipa stahiki zao walimu wa Hesabu, Sayansi na watalaamu wa maabara waliopangiwa vituo hivi karibuni. Alisema halmashauri zote zilizopokea walimu hao zinapaswa kuwapa posho za kujikimu ndani ya siku saba.

Akijibu swali la msingi la Mkundi aliyetaka kujua serikali ina mpango gani wa kutoa posho za mazingira magumu kwa watumishi wa maeneo ya pembezoni, alisema, “Katika kutekeleza Sera ya Malipo ya Mishahara na Motisha iliyopitishwa mwaka 2010, mwaka 2012/13 halmashauri 33 za wilaya ikiwemo halmashauri ya Ukerewe ziliwezeshwa kuandaa miongozo ya kutoa motosha kwa watumishi.”

Alisema kutokana na mpango huo, halmashauri 29 ziliandaa na kuwasilisha katika ofisi ya wizara hiyo miongozo iliyobainisha aina ya motisha inayohitajika. “Utekelezaji wa miongozo hiyo kwa halmashauri zote 29 ulikadiriwa kugharimu Sh bilioni 331.087 kwa mwaka na utekelezaji wa miongozo hiyo, ulitarajiwa kuanza katika mwaka wa fedha wa 2013/14 na haukuanza kutokana na ufinyu wa bajeti

Special need education is defined as a particular educational requirements resulting from learning difficulties such as physical disability or emotional and behavioral difficulties, (Oxford, 2004). Special needs education is the study of special or exceptional of people who cannot benefit fully from regular education instruction due to a variety of reasons such as the degree of their disabilities, psychological, physical, social and communication problems.

Therefore, Special need education, is the education of students with special needs and is prepared in a way that addresses the students and individual differences and needs.

Provision of Education in Tanzania is guided by Education and Training Policy, High Education Policy, Technical Education Policy and Education Policy Zanzibar. The major issues addressed by the policies include access, quality, cost sharing and removing barriers to learners with disabilities

Special education in Tanzania was purposeful introduced to prevent, eliminate, and or overcome the obstacles that might keep an individual with disabilities from learning and from full and active participation in school and society (Heward, 2006) this means that Special education is a profession with its own history, cultural, practices tools and research base focused on the learning needs of exceptional children and adults.

In Tanzania the history of special education traces back before and after the independence.where by it was supported by NGO and mostly religious organization (Possi, 1996). For example, the Anglican Church started the first school for the blind in 1950 and in 1963 Roman Catholic Church established a school for the deaf.(MNE, 1984). Services for children with autism and those who are both deaf and blind were established in 1994 (Mboya and Possi, 1996). The emphasis of education in Tanzania is Education for ALL (MOEC, 1995) as such provision of special education in Tanzania is characterized by a continuum of alternative approaches of placement (Mboya &Possi, 1996), such as special –residential, special day care, mainstreaming/ integrated boarding schools and currently moving towards inclusive education (Mmbaga, 2002; Mwipopo, 2005). However, history of special needs education in Tanzania does not indicate how personnel e.g., teachers, dealing with children with disabilities were trained. This may be the cause as to why special needs education is not given its due attention in educational institutions. Currently, it is only Sebastian kolowa university college (SEKUco) which provides a Degree course with major emphasis in special needs education.

The evolution of special needs education since that time pases through many different phases and faces different challenges which encounters its provision;The following bellow are identified different phases which this education goes through at our country

primary education) and after the introduction of Tanzania education policy, this declared its intention to educate all its citizens, including learners with disabilities. However, the degree of implementation was affected by funding, legislative policy, enrollment and qualified special educators, then deviations from effective implementation would add to the continuing societal negative perceptions of these learners (Peters, 2004)

Special needs education before colonialism,Special needs education during colonialism, In this phase learners with disabilities and/or behavior disorders who could not contribute to the smooth running of the society, was not appreciated nor promoted which causes such negative societal perception of children with disabilities, this situation may be changed due to the influence of the missionaries and, thus, lead to a growing societal sympathy that aligns with the need for acceptance within the mainstream of the society. However, it has been observed that such sudden sympathy and acceptance within the society has often been theoretically voiced, but in reality it is difficult to implement, especially given the fact that such beliefs may still be deeply ingrained within the society and pointed out that because of societal attitudes towards disabilities, it made it difficult to embark on educating them and, at the same time, for them to compete in the job market with non-disability learners (Ozoji, 1985).

Special needs education after colonialism, As soon as Tanzania got her independence from colonialism, the educational system was still flourishing and the learners were still learning together and the same curriculum was still being used. There is little doubt that the Tanzania educational system was also affected. There was no availability of program of service for students with disabilities in place. The war contributed adversely to enhancing a strong educational foundation in the country, let alone the education of the learners with disabilities. At that time, the issue of educating learners with exceptionalities had some impacts on parents of learners with disabilities. This impact continued until around 1974 to 1978, when UPE (universal primary education) and after the introduction of Tanzania education policy, this declared its intention to educate all its citizens, including learners with disabilities. However, the degree of implementation was affected by funding, legislative policy, enrollment and qualified special educators, then deviations from effective implementation would add to the continuing societal negative perceptions of these learners (Peters, 2004

The Challenges facing Tanzania in provision of Special Needs Education

In the process of educating disabled learners a number of challenges lay on the way thus making government and other stakeholders to constantly keep on designing remedies. The following below are challenges that Tanzania has faced and some of challenges are still facing in the provision of special needs education :-

Insufficient or lack of necessary facilities to enhance their learning ( equipments and learning materials ): The provision of special education require special equipment and materials such as Braille machine, wheel chairs , white canes, intelligence test and hearing aids which are very expensive to acquire. Due to the nature of the classroom and size, it is essential that there be an appropriate number of teacher aides to assist the teachers with day to day activities. Therefore, there are no adequate facilities to meet all these requirements (wall, 2004).

An unfriendly physical environment or poor infrastructure. Most of institutions located specifically for people with disabilities are in remote areas that is are nowadays failing to meet community goals for people with disabilities.

The distance from home to school often prevents children with disabilities from attending because the journey is too difficult or takes too long (Mwaisongole P. 2012). Good example in Njombe we that school for deaf to where it located is so far compared to where people with disabilities are concentrated.

Lack of trained teachers (both regular and special education teachers).Specialists in most of developing countries is a great threat so Tanzanian we have a big problem of teachers specialized in the special needs education

Negative attitude towards the disabled children: Some people still believe that children with disabilities are worthless. Those who hold this belief maintain that it is wastage of resources to invest the education of children with disabilities. Such children end up being locked in the house, there by denying them access to education.

Lack of experienced or trained personnel: Some teachers have not been exposed to special needs classrooms and this can be a disadvantages. Educators need to coordinate efforts and understand the needs of classroom in terms of developing skills and lesson plan (Bagandanshwa, 2004)

Isolation: It’s easy for special education instructors to feel isolated. Special education teachers often work alone, which can become draining, isolating, discouraging and lead to burnout and resignation (Bagandanshwa, 2004).

Poverty: The government is economically poor to fully support special education and many families have low income, it becomes difficult for them to make contributions towards the cost of educating their children where they are required to do so.

Though the provision of special need education faces many challenges which encounter its availability to the required learners below there are recommended measures for solving or reducing the challenges that faces the provision of special need education in Tanzania.
For the case of lack of enough fund and resources, the government should allocate the enough funds to the ministry of education especially to the special education department for disabled students so that they can also benefit from education which is also their rights, by doing so the schools will be able to access different learning instrument for the physical disabled students and also to prepare supporting environment for that disabled students.

Teachers must be skilled: Teachers must be skilled in handling severe disabilities and create lesson plans based on individual abilities and adhere to dietary needs of the child. Lack of experience can lead to the child not progressing with skills or cause of adverse medical incidents.

There should possible efforts to improve and modify the existing physical facilities to make sure they are barrier-free and therefore easily accessible to all learners. It should also increase the budgetary allocation to SNE in its annual budget

The Government should come up with feasible education policies for both the regular pupils and for those with learning difficulties.

And for the case of negative attitude towards disabled, the society must be educated on caring and observing the legal system about disabled children. Society should consider disabled children as people who need their rights as normal people.

Also apart from the recommended measures also there are below recommended measure that if govement undertake improvement on it the provision of special need education in Tanzania,this include the followings

The Government should insist on the requiremen t to provide in-service training and retraining on the changes of the curricula.

The Government will continue to re-distribute teachers in order to balance the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR); improve school infrastructure, sanitary facilities and Pupil Book Ratio (PBR) and most considerations on the students with special neds;

In Tanzania, the government is trying to implement the inclusive education programme according to the Salamanca statement of 1994. The MOE is sensitizing parents to send their disabled children to inclusive school. The government is becoming more positive toward the rights of people with disabilities. Today, there are several primary schools in Tanzania that are involved in inclusive education