WHY THE CRACKDOWN ON FAKE CERTIFICATES IN SCHOOLS IS TIMELY – By Bhoke Angela , bevin.bhoke@gmail.com

Teaching is a noble and enviable job. It has to be jealously protected and preserved against the invasion by charlatans.  One needs a strong base of academic, professional, social and moral resources to be able to do it well. The trained teacher adopts appropriate instructional materials and teaching pedagogy to cause a lasting desirable change in the life of the learner. That’s why there exists teachers training colleges and institutions in the country to provide systematic training to upcoming teachers before they eventually graduate and become fully fledged teachers. 

The recent announcement by the government of Tanzania that it will initiate a major crackdown on officers with fake academic papers is not only good for the country, but timely. Though the announcement has not been received well by those who feel they are being targeted, those who have genuinely gone through the system are breathing a sigh of relief!  Possession of fake certificates is increasingly becoming a global trend, from Europe to America; Africa to Asia; Middle East to Australia, forged certificates are on high demand, making printing and selling of the documents a lucrative business!

The announcement on the impending crackdown on fake certificates in institutions such as schools has sent shockwaves down the spines of hundreds of teachers. Already teachers from both Primary and Secondary Schools across the country have vanished from their workplaces for fear of being nabbed by the crackdown. A parliamentary sitting in Dodoma was told last week that this situation has destabilized many schools in the country that depend on such teachers.

The absence of a well-articulated education philosophy in the country coupled with lack of a vision to guide the education sector policy formulation and planning should not be an excuse to have quacks entrusted with thousands of children in the name of imparting knowledge.
The whole reason why we have a big percentage of youths dropping from schools and a big number of unemployed population stems right from the primary schooling onset. Not getting the right and quality training! And this can be as a result of quack teachers not knowing what to teach or give to the children! As a result, they fail the primary exam and so cannot proceed with the rest of the education and at the end, end up in the streets as unemployed population. The government needs to move with speed and save the country from thousands of teachers taking advantage of the above situation and masquerading as teachers while destroying what would have been a brighter future for our children. This announcement of crackdown couldn’t have come at a better time than this!

By the way, who says teaching is a ‘stepping stone’? Billions of Money is spent on training people to become professional teachers and the country therefore needs to get value for this money!  According to the global Partnership for Education recent report on the country’s education progress, a picture of positive progress has been painted, it says that the country has seen significant progress related to school infrastructure and enrollment, that enrolment rates have gone up and that the teacher and student ratio has improved. If this is the case, then as a country, we are on the tight track. The Ministry of Education needs to be supported in implementing it’s education strategies and ensuring that we have the right people as teachers in learning institutions.

It is indeed sad that at this era and time, we can still talk about teachers without certificates or with forged certificates in our schools. The government needs to be supported in the attempts to weed out these dubious personnel out of our systems. Charity, they say, begins at home. Parents, families and society should austerely imbibe in their children and young people the virtues of honesty, integrity and excellence. There is no need to resort to unorthodox means to success. Any child, for example, who is suspected to have altered an original examination result from school should be thoroughly investigated and punished if culpable and so is a teacher! . It is inappropriate and suicidal for an undesirable behavior involving the child to be treated with disdain. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean, and so to overlook a fraudulent act committed by the child or a teacher is to bolster his or her appetite to continue to commit it and even greater. Young adults need proper guidance and reinforcements so as to live to expectation.

As a starting point, and so as parents can even have confidence in the teachers they have entrusted with their children, the government needs to make it mandatory that all schools should publish on the school notice boards the names of all their teachers with employment details, such as schools attended, dates of birth and professional ranks, this is also for all staff to appreciate. Directors and education officers should ensure that the certificates of persons seeking employment in the Service are properly scrutinized and validated. Documents presented for promotions, salary upgrading and adjustments by staff should be certified and endorsed by the awarding institutions and authorities.

Society must not sit aloof as dubious characters invade schools to mislead our children. Traditional authorities, assembly members and the media must get on board. After all, the school is for all of us!
The writer is the Editor of JARIDA HURU Publications        
E-mail: bevin.bhoke@gmail.com