Public Dish Part 2
In December 3rd 2021, I listened to minister Ummy Mwalimu, bemoan the education status of our country with both sadness and bemusement at the same time. Why sadness, because she was contradicting herself-first she got issued a notice by her quasi-senior minister of education then Dr. Ndalichako to ban all extra tuitions activities to all public school kids in Tanzania. At the same time, she admits that these public schools are under-resourced, from science and math teachers to even sufficient classes.\
She explains that poor kids are overworked, why should they have to remain back in school for extra tuitions class, while we have this comprehensive syllabus showing what children are supposed to cover during each semester? She missed the difference between having the syllabus and implementing it. They are not the same thing. Get your fact right, minister!
She further, bemoans the commercialization of education as source of the problem and not the results of the problem in education sector. Incentives matter — Madam Minister, “show me the incentives and I will show you the outcomes”
The honorable Minister, said her kids do not do all this extra tuitions, but did not care to tell us whether the school they go to, have sufficient teachers or is under resourced as the majority of these institutions across the country? The moderators recoiled to question or contradict the minister; after all, it is ill manners in my country tradition to question your guest speaker in any material sense? Unless is Udaku breaking!
I asked my question through backchannel to Moderator of Jamii Forum session. My questions were as follow:
1. What happen to freedom of choice?
2. Why should the government have a say on private choice- parent choosing to get tuitions for their kids?
3. Why is the line between the government and individual sovereignty?
4. Should the citizen have choices besides those given by the government?
5. Since government ban the extra classes [tuitions], how can it be accountable for the outcome? Can citizen sue government for their kids underperforming?
6. What is Ummy going to do if I hire a tutor for my child, come arrest me? Using what law?
Well none of my question were asked, apart from being acknowledged, as you might know, acknowledgment is the best you can get. Even the responses often rhyme with, “that is a very good question” followed by either inactionable response or pure diversion. We are caution not to ire respectful pleasantries. The rest of the responses were at best knee jerked which pass unsuspectingly.
The results are already abysmal in public schools in Tanzania, but Ummy said publically firing head teachers and ward councilors is illegal. Remove all accountability? What outcome is she honestly trying to get?
Ok a little economic lesson- if you impose a ban on a service you get not only deadweight loss which adversely affect consumer welfare, but you also give all these other incentives of inception of black markets. People will not take your instructions as religious; neither will they take you seriously ever again. Credibility damage? Go figure. People will device their new form of getting what you ban, from zoom tutoring, to all form clever methods-which will require Ummy to quit her ministerial job and run a special operation of getting these law breakers, deploy more resources of the already lean government. However, naah it cannot be that serious, Ummy will realize the impracticability of her proposal and will ignore it over time and more on to issue other “Matamko” — of course, life must go and the newsmakers need catchy new headings.
Worst-case scenario- the minority few will take up my line of thinking above, ignore Ummy, and get their kids all the support they can get in a failing system and get ahead. Majority of will take her world as gospel and even take to heart and put it into practice, device chores for their kids as the ministers suggested “Watoto watajifunza lini kupika?” As if these kids’ aspirations are to become a kitchen girl or a garden boy? When chicken come to roost, I bet Ummy will be a minister of [choose your department], and we won’t remember she ordered the current outcome in yester-years. Ok is there any law to hold her accountable? Actually, no- plus she explicitly said she is merely executing her senior instructions without questioning them. Fall in line or you fall out! Political animal turned policy animal?
The true victim of not bad policy –but political “matamko” are the citizens, especially when matamko become the order of the day-they tend to impinge clear thinking if actually there is any thinking at all. It creates chaos! Nevertheless, even it demoralizes actors in the sector. We have the red queen effect in the opposite direction in our education system. Run at the same pace in giving matamko to remain in the same place when it comes to outcomes which matters for upward mobility.
If I was to be asked given the conditions of our public school, Minister Ummy and Ndalichako have their plate full. They should focus on getting sufficient number of teachers to schools, build enough schools, and all other necessary infrastructure and stay out of private citizen choices. After all they never have the right to determine what happen to people children after school-just as we don’t have a say for her own kids. Everyone should stick to their task.
If education is the greater equalizer that ensures upward mobility and Ummy has opinions about it which there is no any material way of making her accountable of those opinions, why should I take her seriously in her pleasantries public exchange about education? On the other hand, why should anyone else?
If the most important source of wealth in any economy is human capital, have we done a brilliant job in investing in our own human capital to a point it warrant to limit it? From the economic point of view which put value on human capital above all else as the most fundamental source of national wealth, when I look at Tanzania future accounting for Ndalichako and Ummy comments, I am less optimistic. Their statements only serves to limit Tanzanian youth energy, talent and ambition, and therefore they should not be taken seriously.
Dear parent, if you have to be named the tiger parent of the year, be it. Make sure your loved one get the best education money can offer. The free things are rare in this world — probably the only free thing I notice lately is Ummy statement nothing else is. Ummy advice is not to over-study, the advice to your child is not to under study for education is the only thing which is good and plenty in this world-so when it is passed around, you don’t want to be bashful, but reach out and take a big helping every time. You will find that education is the only thing lying around loose in this world, and that it is about the only thing a fellow can have as much as he/she is willing to haul away. Everything else is screwed down tight and the screwdriver is lost.
My ending quote today is from Piggy letters as usual {“the first thing that any education ought to give a man is character, and the second thing is education.}Remember this as you plan for your child education.
