Give BoT fund for scientists support

On November 26, this year President Jakaya Kikwete is expected to launch a rare fund in academics aimed at boosting two very crucial subjects in university and college education.

To be known as the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Memorial scholarship fund, it will be used to sponsor students who excel in science and mathematics subjects.

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) which is spearheading the establishment of the fund said on Tuesday that the launch will be a side matter to the bank’s two-day biennial conference of financial institutions slated for Arusha.

Setting up funds for the purpose of promoting tertiary education in Tanzania is not a new thing.

There have been massive efforts in this regard, ranging from the thousands of schools set up through the PEDP (2003-2007) and SEDP (2004-2009) and higher learning institutions in the past 20 years through public as well as private means.

Thanks to the efforts, Tanzania has grown from only one institution of higher education (a University College) in 1961 to more than 200 tertiary training institutions today, according to the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.

Many institutions, especially companies have of recent come up with a number of programmes aimed at sponsoring financially incapable Tanzanians to pursue education.

Despite all these developments, establishing a specific fund for the purpose of promoting science and mathematics in the realm of higher learning academics in Tanzania has been more talk than real practice.

More bizarre is that while enrolment at colleges and universities has increased from slightly over 50,000 students in 2006 to well over 90,000, the number of students taking mathematics and science has not increased proportionally.

It would be useless to expect the country to advance much in the effort to promote economic growth unless it seriously addresses the current shortage of skilled manpower, whose foundation is mainly in being well grounded in maths and science.
The demand for scientists and mathematicians, particularly with the advent of expanding mining and oil drilling profession has been on the rise, with the government in a rush to assemble such manpower.

We need not only rush, but must also find ways of sustaining the grooming of such skills.

It is because of this that we commend the Bank of Tanzania for pioneering to promote these fields of study, which we hope would increase the number of scientists who are of high demand at this time when our nation is clearly poised for a major economic leap.
But while kudos go to BoT, we think that it is high time other organizations - companies and NGOs emulate the spirit shown by the bank.

Let it be understood that organisations, especially companies are the biggest consumers of these educational products — scientists and mathematicians. Because of this, they should always remember that it is not enough for them to pick the best cream of scientists and mathematicians in the market, but it is important for them to know how they are made, and crucially take part in enabling their making.

Back moves to curb accidents

Most times when we read about road accidents, the cause is mainly attributed to human error, such as speeding, overtaking at dangerous spots, or just downright careless driving.

The broad definition of an accident speaks of an unplanned, unexpected, and undesigned (not purposefully caused) event which occurs suddenly and causes injury or loss, a decrease in value of the resources, or an increase in liabilities.

And indeed experts assign 80 per cent of causes of accidents to human error.

Latest figures showed that, in just the first half of the year, January to June, the number of road accidents was a shocking 2,424 claiming some 276 lives. That is approximately 404 each month or over 13 road accidents everyday while every six months in Dar es Salaam, at least 320 sustain road accident related injuries.

Police reports have almost consistently attributed human omission or commission to the accidents, saying some were due to speeding, wrong timing in overtaking or a defective vehicle.

Yet with a little bit of training, mentoring and strict supervision, we could bring down substantially the number of accidents on our roads.

Indeed we know of many a driver who go to the extreme to argue that accidents are so defined because they happen without one’s volition. For them however careful a driver is on the road, when fate decides so, an accident will happen.

For them, there is little that human beings can do to prevent an accident. They do have a point though.

A number of accidents are indeed beyond human control, but it is also true that better tools and designs are being developed daily to lower the rate of such accidents. But are the human beings also getting training on how to avoid accidents?

This is crucial, for the question that is often asked, but rarely answered is whether enough effort is being made to reduce accidents by comprehensively addressing the human element.

We are talking of the general daily happenings on our roads and seas, which could be prevented if awareness campaigns were mounted as well as promoting better driving.

That is why we take positive note of the initiative by the Tanzania Truck Drivers’ Association (TTDA) to slow down the deadly trend by giving drivers adequate training. We call upon all other drivers’ associations and other stakeholders to emulate the move in a bid to contribute positively to safety on our roads.

TTDA National Chairperson, Clement Masanja blamed the rapidly increasing road accidents that claim many a life each year on, in his words, ‘inadequately trained drivers’.

But more shocking was the revelation that at least 75 percent of drivers who received the training conceded that they had not attended any driving school prior to embarking on driving trucks and that this was their very first formal training on road safety.

No wonder we continue to have such a high accident rate.

It is our hope that the training will now stop there, but be sustained and reinforced with regular inspections of competence to create a cadre of skilled, caring drivers to improve safety on our roads.

Dar clubs should use money wisely

Mainland football premiership clubs should be prudent in the use of the available resources, which are scarce and are very much needed to promote soccer in the country.

We all know that some of the most bitter battles fought in some of these clubs, centre around the use of funds, and that a sad epitome of the failure of these clubs to improve the level of soccer in the country or make much headway in continental encounters is due to failure to prudently use the resources they generate for overall prosperity of their clubs and players.

Every club has sources of funds but when it comes to spending, the three Dar es Salaam top flight sides have to some extent been extravagant and reckless.

It is known that we are living in the world of competition as each club needs to acquire quality coaches and players to strengthen its team.

Since the Mainland premiership season kicked off on September 15, Azam FC and Young Africans have parted ways with coaches whom they hired at staggering amounts of money.

The management of the two clubs has made crucial but costly decisions to breach contractual agreements after hiring coaches who stayed for only a ‘short’ time.

The clubs might have good reasons for making such decisions but it should be noted that critical analysis in terms of competence of the coaches ought to have been made prior to engaging them, so as to avoid the costly moves.

Hiring of these coaches must be done with due attention to skills, character. Other aspects such as relationship with officials and players must also be taken into account before the final decision to sign contracts.

What is the use of hiring a coach and enjoying his services for less than a quarter of his contractual tenure and then firing him? How can the club redeem its hard-earned, but now wasted money?

Yanga fired their Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet less than three months after contracting him, paying compensation money resulting from the breach.

Last week another Dar top flight side Azam parted ways with their Serbian coach Boris Bunjak who was contracted by the club in July.

We know for sure that clubs have discretionary powers to spend money the way they wish, of course observing their constitutions.

However, couldn’t these clubs have contracted consultants who would have advised them ahead of taking such bold and of course costly decisions?

Why would a club like Azam sack Englishman John Stewart Hall at the end of Kagame Cup in July and then recall him three months later?

Yanga breached the contract of Kenyan player John Odhiambo midway into the season and then had to labour to pay the compensation money last week.

Simba also previously offloaded their Serbian coach Milovan Circovic before recalling him again to perform the same duties.

All these incidents are happening due to the fact that officials of these clubs have been overlooking the need to have football consultants in their management committees.

It’s time clubs reversed the trend and started spend money prudently in the direction of improving football development.