Limited intake capacity killing Tanzania's students' dreams
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Loading... - Amidah Msigwa
- 22 Sep 2022
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The dreams of thousands of students wishing to pursue specialised courses such as medicine and health sciences are being dashed annually as the number of applicants steadily increases, The Citizen has learnt.
The government through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has been encouraging students to take up science subjects, including health sciences, to enable the nation to have sufficient human resources in critical sectors.
As part of its efforts, the government has allocated Sh3 billion in scholarship grants for the 500 best students in science subjects in the 2022/23 financial year.
“All students who excelled in science subjects in the 2022 Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education Examination will be offered full scholarships by the government,” Education minister Adolf Mkenda said recently.
This is meant to encourage more students to take up science subjects, and bolster key sectors such as health, agriculture, energy, water and education.
There have been complaints about inadequate numbers of health experts in the country, especially specialist doctors, despite Tanzania wishing to promote itself as a regional medical tourism hub.
The free education policy has in recent years doubled the number of students who qualify to join higher education institutions.
Although recent data from the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) shows that more students still prefer education and business programmes followed by medicine and health sciences, experts believe that the number of students who want to study science, including health sciences, is increasing at a breathtaking pace. Read More…
