Ei-iE

A shortage of teachers in over 250 schools has been the focus of Government and education union action in Zanzibar. The fundamental issue for both is to determine how Zanzibar can train, recruit and retain teachers in their teaching jobs.

Working conditions, including professional teaching conditions, play a substantial role in teachers' decisions to quit teaching in a particular school or district and even contribute to them deciding to leave the profession altogether.

“ZATU, the sole union organising teachers in the isles, has initiated several efforts to tackle the qualified teachers’ problem in the country,” said ZATU General Secretary Mussa Omar Tafurwa. “Among these efforts is the teachers’ professional development programme, through which ZATU assists members in acquiring qualifications to join a teachers’ training college. The assistance is made through financial support to pay for the national O Level and A Level examinations.”

Gaps in primary and secondary schools

The shortage of teachers in Zanzibar is most acute in primary and secondary schools, where it is the main cause of students' poor performance, leading to an increasing number of paid-for extra classes. The Government’s measures to overcome the problem include seeking help from foreign volunteers, motivating teachers by improving their living conditions, and a higher investment in teacher training to provide more qualified teachers.

Parents and students had complained that not enough was being done to ensure that schools have enough qualified teachers. Good teachers make a difference, they said, and a lack of sufficient numbers of highly trained teachers is a problem for students. Complaints were also voiced by teachers, students and the Zanzibar House of Representatives’ Members and led the Government to increase its efforts to find enough qualified teachers for each classroom. On average, in Zanzibar, the teacher-student ratio 1:70, almost triple the official standard.

Need for better working and living conditions

Good teachers have been departing Zanzibar to go to the Tanzanian mainland and outside Tanzania to find better living and working conditions. The shortage is so acute that the Government has been under pressure to employ retired teachers as an additional measure to reduce the problem of the teacher shortage in schools.

Government action

Both the Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Ali Juma Shamuhuna, and the Minister for Civic Service and Good Governance, Haji Omar Kheri, have, on different occasions, promised that the Zanzibar Government will employ 1,000 public-school teachers in 2012-13, with a priority given to teachers of science subjects.

“The main objective is to develop an education sector with excelling students and quality teachers. Teachers from abroad will also become trainers of trainers. Our focus is also to get science books, and standard working equipment,” said Zahra Ali Hamad, the Deputy Minister for Education and Vocational Training.

“We are encouraging teachers and students to take science subjects, and the Ministry has given priority to students who need to study science subjects,” Shamuhuna said.

Although Ministers allege that the teacher shortage is particularly severe in the fields of science and mathematics, many head teachers argue that the shortage is also in other arts subjects.

A big difference in working conditions remains between teachers in wealthy schools and those in poor ones. Teachers in more advantaged communities experience much better working conditions, including smaller class sizes, and have much more control over the decision-making process in their schools.

ZATU strategy

ZATU adopted its strategy of assisting teachers to complete their O-Levels and A-Levels as a way of getting qualified teachers into its membership. Many, including the Government, have interpreted the trade union’s role as being to upgrade teachers. ZATU Delegates’ Conference voted against ZATU discontinuing the upgrading programme, and ZATU uses membership dues to fund the upgrading programme supported earlier by DLF, one of the EI affiliates in Denmark.

The union has also been advocating for better working conditions and lobbying through members of the House of Representatives’ Permanent Committee in charge of the education budget to insist that the government invests enough to fund education. “The union furthermore is still fighting for bargaining right which are not respected in the isles,” said Tafurwa.

EI: Government responsibility

“EI strongly recommends that the Government of Zanzibar recognises that upgrading teachers is its responsibility,” said EI Regional Coordinator Richard Etonu. “ZATU efforts should be supported by the Government which has the full responsibility for training teachers.”

He went on to deplore the fact that “Zanzibar still has a high number of untrained teachers, and many teachers teaching in schools are struggling to get secondary school and high school qualifications. Unless teachers’ living and working conditions are improved, Zanzibar will always fall victim to a teacher shortage, as the profession will remain unattractive.”