YPM
TZ conducted debate competition which involved 55 schools
in Lushoto District with a total of 615 students (Female 339 Male 276).
26th June 2015 Breakfast meeting the topic was the
Destruction and the protection of environment in Lushoto District. The
presenters was Mr. Thomas Lushoto District Environment Officer and Mr. Khalifa
stakeholder in environment matter in Lushoto District both the presenters and
the participants discussed on the challenges of the environment issues in
Lushoto and suggest what can be done to protect the environments. Also presenters
share same pictures to show environment situation in Lushoto District.
This Debate
competition started since February 2018 by forming a committee of five members
one from YPM staff and four teachers from different schools as team of coordinators.
The debate
involved various educational stakeholders and has involved all secondary
schools in Lushoto District Council and some six schools from the Bumbuli
Councils.
The
competition also included the Public Debate Format (PDF) training for all
English teachers at Secondary Schools established by the Youth Peacemakers
Tanzania.
On 10th
August, 2018 YPM in celebration of the International Youth Day conducted Debate
Competition Finals at the District level which was held at Shambalai Secondary
School hall. The District Commissioner of Lushoto was the guest of honor,
whereby other stakeholders such as the District Executive Director, the
District Education Officer, Ward Education Officers Radio Utume and the
community were invited to take part in the occasion. The District Commissioner
was represented by the Lushoto Division Officer.
In running this competition, the
following benefits were attained by the participants:-
1. Students were trained on S2C (Subject
to Citizen) which is one of the methodology used by YPM to create the sense of
responsibility, duty and rights among youths as community members.
2. Learners gained wider knowledge in the course
of preparation for the bigger event. They consulted, discussed and read
different sources to acquire evidence and supporting points for their
arguments.
3. Students develop self-confidence and
ability to present their topics in front of people from different caliber.
4. They got exposure by travelling from
one school to the other in carrying on with the competition at different
levels.
5. Learn more English language that was
used at all levels in the debate, not because Swahili is not important but as a
way to build skills on the media of learning used at Secondary Education.
6. Students created network, partnership
and peer to peer relations.
7. More than 40 teachers were able to
attend and learn new technics and methodology of conducting the PDF debate.
Despite these benefits we have also
met the following as follows;
1. Some
schools did not participate fully in the competition, without crucial reasons.
2. Financial
challenges was a major challenge especially during inter schools competition at
Ward levels, where students presenting one ward were required to meet another
ward.
3. The
students seem to lack strategies for preparing themselves as best presenters
and give strong evidence to support their arguments.
4. Many students are unaware of the Public
Debate Format (PDF)
Future Plans
1. We are looking forward to
a. Conducting debates that will be
involving all existing Secondary Schools in the Lushoto and Bumbuli Council.
b. Running a competition that will
involve all Secondary Schools in the Tanga Region (Inter district level)
c. Finding effective representatives who
will represent us in various issues at the National and International levels.
Based on so many direct and indirect
profitable benefits in this competition, YPM requests cooperation from various
stakeholders to enable the competition to succeed 100% for future years by
facilitating us in the following issues.
1. Assistance in transport and food for
students especially from inter-ward level.
2. Support the improvement of gifts to
bring more motivation to students
3. Intensified Public-Private
Partnership in this sector through involvement of our Councils(Lushoto and
Bumbuli) in improving the competition.
4. Ideas to make the competition
attractive, educative and empowering.
PETS
seminar at Handeni District conducted on 24th-25th August
2015. It includes 55 participants 31 men and 24 women who represented 12 wards
with 63 villages at Handeni District to help four participants of PETS TOT’s
from Handeni in implementation of PETS activities.
Youth
Peace Makers Director, P.O for environment and advocacy and PETS seminar
participants’ group photo
Rev. Shemkala opened
the seminar.
Participants votes
for the leaders
Members contributed on breakfast meeting about the destruction of environment in Lushoto
Environment
and advocacy program at Mkinga. In Mwakikonge and Mwakikoya primary
schools. On February we visit those schools and share about Youth
Peace Makers programs especial environment and sport and on May we
visit them again this is the development they make. They form Peace
environment clubs at their schools and among other things they do in
their schools to protect the environment also they establish seedbed.
environment
club at Mwakikoya primary school
We
also teach and ask questions about environment and how they protect
it and distribute gifts.
Environment
club educate about environment protection through songs
Program
officer teach the environment clubs class
Also
we distribute three dustbins to each school for the proper keeping of
dry dusts.
We
also invite Horohoro primary School to work with them on our Programs
Breakfast meeting is the meeting which involve
duty bearer and right holders to discuss the topic raised by that
community.
This time the meeting was in Mkinga and the topic
was about the ullegal migrants in Mkinga and Tanzania at large and
what should be done?
On discussing the topic there was the representor
from migration and investigation office Mr. Mwesiga B.
Lubaura. He started by introduce the meaning of migration sector and
the duties done by migration. He said that migration is the
government organ for security of citizens and non- citizens and the
duties is to know the purpose of non-citizens to come Tanzania, to
make sure that non citizens are pay tax(permit), to make follow up
for those who enter into the country illegal. He also explains the
countries which mainly enter illegal in our country, Kenya, Ethiopia,
Somalia and Bangladesh . They enter in Tanzania because of fertile
land, forest, minerals, and also in other border near the countries
which have wars in their countries they are running from war example
who pass through Kigoma, Kagera, Rukwa borders that come from
Burundi.
Mr. Mwesiga presenter breakfast meeting
In Mkinga
many illegal migrants enter into our country because of economic and
other matters and when they reach in Tanzania they being received and
transported by public motorcycle drivers (bodaboda) but also village
leaders. He mention same of those villages like Mwakijembe,
Mwakikoya, Kinyaki and Maeli nane
Member contribute in the meeting
Represented
also show the disadvantage or the consequences of illegal migrants as
follows
- Environmental destruction such as banning the forest for charcoal and Mwakijembe is the leading village in production of charcoal and transported to Mombasa, Mkunda, Malindi. Also Kenya they protect their forests while cutting and destruct our forest
- Land conflicts; there is existence of land conflict between people from other countries especially Kenya and Tanzanian example at Mwakikoya they even report to District commissioner of Mkinga that there land has been taken by non-citizen who are illegally enter into our country
- Also they are selected to be leaders in different position in the government and they used to distribute land and receive to other illegal migrants.
- Illegal migrants they also register themselves to get National ID card. But in this point presenter assured the participants of the meeting that no one of illegal migrants will get National ID card in spite of passing all process of getting the ID’s.
- Also they have habit of killing each other.
Members of Mkinga breakfast meeting
Also he
suggest what can be done to stop illegal migrants in Mkinga
- Each ward will have immigration office
- To give them order to live by themselves before the operation starts
- Village leaders to use their registration books in order to know all new members inter in their area.
- To educate citizens about the disadvantages of illegal migrants
- To put more security in bounders
- To follow the laws of National and International
The
challenges facing the system
- Budget; Due to low budget and high demand of resources it’s hard to make the operation of sending back illegal migrants to their countries
- Migrants are travel in different parts of Tanzania
- Diplomatic relation
- Village leader they not report about the illegal migrants
On
contributing on the topic other consequences were mentioned such as
- Diseases transmission
- Illegal business
What should
be done?
- To use media to educate people
- To report in case of any doubt or see the illegal migrants.
On 7th November 1014 the topic was “The effects of the Alcohol to
Youth and its effect on development of Lushoto and national at large and what
should be done?”
The
meeting invites different people from different sectors that includes people
from government and non-government e.g police officers, town executive
officer,. There are two main speakers first was the Doctor (Dr. Msuya) from
Lushoto hospital who speaks on the effects of alcohol on health perspective.
And the second one is Advocate KheriSanga who spoke the effects of alcohol in
relation to laws.
SPEAKERS
First
speaker Dr. Msuya he started by speak on thing which affects the youth
development illness, accidents, poor education; engage on bad groups, alcohol
and use of drugs.
Effects
of using alcohol
Ø Lead to have bad decision
Ø Un able to know what is good and what is bad
Ø To have bad behavior.
Ø Cause Liver, hurt ,brain, stomach cancer problem
Ø Lead to HIV/AIDS transmission disease.
Ø Blood pressure
Ø Loss of parts of body organ due to accident.
Ø Reduce the power of growth production especial to men
What
should be done?
Ø Parent should take part in growth of their kinds
Ø To know what their kinds do
Ø To advice the youth on effects of alcohol and drugs
Ø To have strict laws on production and selling of alcohol
Ø To make sure children gets good education
The
second speaker, Adv. Sanga he started on classifies the meaning of youth in the
eyes of law that youth is the person of 18 to35 years old. He looks on alcohol
Act section 77(2) that it prohibits the seller to sell alcohol to the people
under 18 and also to sell the alcohol to the drunker person.
Effects
of alcohol in law
Ø The law did not forgive the person who commit the crime when
he drunk.
Ø Alcohol increase the criminal rate
Ø Reduce the productive force
Ø Increase illness
Ø Decrease the economy
Ø Lead to bad ethical
to the children.
NB: Youth
should stop to engage in alcohol so as to avoid conflict with laws
After
that stakeholders they get time to participate and look on how the alcohol have
been effect youth and hinder the development in Lushoto and National at large.
The meeting was attended by 37 stakeholders who are 9 woman and 28 males. Also the meeting was involved leaders in Lushoto District that is District commissioner, District executive officer, DAS, TEO, head teachers and head mistress from different schools includes those did not performed well and who performed well. All member meet to discuss why Lushoto have poor performance in 2014 on form four result the topic was “The reason of bad academic result in 2014 in Lushoto District and what should be done?”.
On starting discussed this topic
there two main speakers from Lushoto District was District Officer for
secondary education Mr. Kassian Sengasu and the second speaker was Mr. Frowing
Mgani from SEKOMU as one of the University who prepare teachers.
The first speaker started from
8:20 to 8:45 he gives the short history of education in Tanzania that there two
education system in Tanzania that of before independent and after independents
and that of before independent was colonial education aimed at help colonizer
to got peoples to work in their investments and the education after independent
is divided in 7-4-2-3 that is standard one up to seven, form one to form four,
five and six and university three years. After the independent Tanga was the
first region in providing education.
He continue that now Lushoto has 60 secondary
schools, 53 Government schools and 7 non-government schools and last year 2014,
51 schools there students sit for form four examination and 47 are government
schools and 4 and non-government and results were no good.
He mentioned some of the reasons why the
results were not good in 2014 as follows;
·
Increase
of schools: in 1990 there only 5 schools that are Magamba secondary, Mazinde
juu secondary, Shambarai, Kifungiro and Kongei. In 2000 schools increase to 10
schools and 2015 there 60 schools so this is the challenge as there are
increase of schools but no teachers and other infrastructure like books,
·
Hard
teaching condition there no teaching equipment although this year they success
to have enough books for mathematics, science but also their schools from form
one up to from four there no single science teacher.
·
No
good co-operation between teachers and parent; Parents they don’t make the
follow up to know the challenges of their children and to know how to solve
them with cooperation with teachers.
·
Students
are forced to go school they supposed to be taught the importance of education.
·
The
level of depending on teacher decrease as the students goes to higher level
example in primary school the students depend to the teachers 50%, in secondary
it 40%, high schools 30% and university is only 10% and masters is 5%
·
Negative
perception among the parent about secondary education. Parents are competing on
how many children got business but not which students perform well in their
studies. Also parents are not seen the important of their children go to
secondary after they finish standard seven they think it enough this make last
year the District Commissioner to inter into contract with them that every
student who selected to inter secondary school much do so.
·
In
Tanzania law the children must study the primary school but it silence to
o-level education
He finishes his presentation by suggestion what
should be done,
Youth should be educated the importance of
education as education is the heritance of youth.
All stakeholders should cooperate and solve any
problems arises as community
He ended up by saying
that last year result, shame and unspeakable.
The second speaker starts from 2:45am to 9:8am. He started by saying
that in education must be the first and last school but what it matter is the
average or the gap between the first and last school.
Also he continued that the system of change the
education to be free education increase the number of children who join primary
schools and also increase number of students who join secondary schools example
in 2001 740’s students join form one but in 2009 it was 1400,000 students join
form one this means that if the students increase the demand increase such as teachers,
library, book, and other infrastructures. This lead to the force that teachers
should be trained short course called crash program but also it did not solve
the problem of lack of teachers in schools,
Question: what should be given priority, to start
building schools or to train the teachers first? And if it libraries it must be
known at what time it will be starts to be used
Also the target of people and the government is
based on quantity and not quality that why it happen that form one student he
don’t know how to study.
Another point is what is used to measure
students i.e examination but this exam high number is multiple choice all
subjects even mathematics so that should change.
- Teacher teach the students how to pass exams and even the books used are question and answer this make students to cram but not to understand
- Teaching language is also the problem as language in primary education is Swahili but in secondary is English so students are not prepared to use English in primary level.
- Co-operation between government and teachers
Ø Teachers are not motivated
Ø Low salary
Ø Delay to be given their rights
Ø Delay to be promoted
Ø They don’t have houses
This cause the high number of teachers to be
absent during the class hours because at that time they are in their business
this is according to UNESCO research.
·
Students
discipline make them fail
His presentation ends at 9:08am and this leave
room for all stakeholders to share and discuss in detail why Lushoto did not
perform well.
On sharing with stakeholder they participate as
follows;
·
On
determine the reasons why Lushoto fail and according to the points mentioned by
the speakers they are too general and we should ask our self how many
government schools are within Tanga region and why Lushoto so he suggest
instead of mention general reasons there should be monitoring and evaluation in
those area so as to know or identify the specific reasons why Lushoto did not
perform well in form four exam result. And also he suggests that something has
to be done instead of wait the system to change because we can’t continue to be
the last until the system change.
·
Science
and technology also affects the students’ example use of telephone in schools.
·
Government
only order the teachers to reach the target but they don’t solve the problem of
teachers and students example students are sitting on the flow because of
scarcity of chairs and teachers are not given their rights.
·
The
government can support the students to get meals at school so as to be able to
study because as to compare with non-government schools that perform well
students they eat at school.
·
To
build good connection between students, teacher and parent.
·
Another
reason why there is bad result in Lushoto, one student contribute that due to
geographical of Lushoto students are staying very far from the school and they
travel long way to reach the school this make them to be late to school and
found that the lesson has already started but also the way back home they tired
and can’t have personal reading. He thinks that the solution to that problem is
to build hostel to help those students who stay far from the school.
·
In
order to solve the problem of teachers in schools those students who were
competent in the school can be allowed to teach after finish school.
·
On
contributing head teacher of Manolo secondary one among two last school in
Tanzania she said that the conflict between head teacher and teachers, head
teacher and the community in 2011 contribute to the failure of students because
teacher spend a lot of time to discuss the conflict among them and not teaching
although the head teacher was changed but to bring back the trust of teachers
and community to the new head teacher.
·
Delay
of caption fee from the government this caused delay in buying of different
equipment’s like books.
·
Also
there is threat from the government when the student get punishment for uses of
phone in schools, suggestion that the law should be clear and those students
who are caught using phone at school to be send home.
·
Also
the friendship and co-operation between government schools and non-government
schools to have interaction so they can learn from each other and also attend
parent meeting and contribute from the discussion.
·
In
non-government schools example Mzinde juu the fees is not high but parent can
contribute anything they have instead of paying money (they pay in kind) e.g
carrot, cassava, onion e.t.c
·
Parent
should measure the price of their children to pass and what could the price if
the student fail.
·
Also
to know as Lushoto District what is the priority example to build houses for
the teachers
·
Ward
education officers to form the cabinet to identify and solve the problems arise
within their schools.
·
In
choosing school board must consider people who are capable of acting effectively.
·
District
executive officer contribute that the
problems are both for the teachers, students, parents and 33% teachers they
attend in class and 67% they do not attend in class this is according to UNESCO
·
Also
on solving the problem of scarcity of books teachers can prepare their notes so
that they can be enough for student to read and pass.
·
Teacher
should have vision to solve miner problems arise in school rather than wait for
District to do it.
·
Also
there will be increase of teachers, last year it was 200 teachers but this year
will be 500 teachers and Lushoto District fight very hard to make sure that
teachers are given their rights.
·
On
contributing Lushoto District Commissioner insist that everyone should perform
his or her responsibility that is the government, parents, teachers and
students
·
Strategies
and plane should be before negative thing happen and not after.
·
She
also insists on monitoring and evaluations in schools.
This was the discussion on the
breakfast meeting24th April 2015 on topic “The
reason of bad academic result in 2014 in Lushoto District and what should be
done?”.
