Use of Internet and automated systems has been growing steadily spurring productivity and economic development, according to experts.
Internet users rose to 2,895,662 (about 5.3 percent) this year up from 2,742,269 (or 5.1percent) last year according to International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Bank and United Nations Population Division reports.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Tanzania is the first country in the world where mobile money transactions are worth more than half the country’s GDP. But despite these positive trends, a multiplier effect is on middle class and most likely to reduce jobs in the market.
Among Economists, Business leaders and others the debate is on how best the advancement of technology can help promote economic growth, yet generate job opportunities. Despite rapid global technological advancement and economic development, Tanzania has not made greater investment in its education systems to replicate the new developments.
“The government is well placed to improve Information Communication Technology-ICT among its units to spur growth,” said Minister for Works, Transport and Communication Prof Makame Mbarawa, at the launch of Technological Festival held in Dar es Salaam.
However, observers question on availability of infrastructures in public schools, not to mention in remote areas. The 2016, Huawei Tanzania Technology Festival was meant to showcase, the firm’s latest innovation especially on the concept of ICT transformation, infrastructure and business transformation operations. Prof Mbarawa outlined that Tanzania has a strongest National ICT Broadband (NICTBB) covering around 24 regions across the country.
“This provides conducive framework for investments.” The NICTBB, according to the minister, is connected to submarine optic cable, offering services to cross-border countries; Kenya, Malawi, Burundi, Zambia, Rwanda and Uganda.
Themed “Open roads to a better connected Africa,” the three days festival has provided a mechanism to redefine that technological unemployment can be twisted to create more jobs than killing the existing ones.
Former University of Dar es Salam Business School Dean, Prof Marcelina Chijoriga said technology in development is inseparable and that if well applied can address development challenges and create jobs. ” Currently, there are more ICT graduates without jobs.
As the government shifts to Dodoma, these jobless graduates can help facilitate the Dar es Salaam- Dodoma migration process,” Dr Chijoriga believes. Likewise, the University of Dar es Salaam Telecommunication Engineer student, Ms Faith Asenga says the expansion of knowledge, advancement of technology as well as globalization issues stakeholders must invest in education sector to help penetration of technology for development.
“The profession is quite challenging. There is also a challenge with competent teachers requiring new planning and technological adaptation to cope with cultural dynamism,” she says. Teachers are implementers, and thus need to learn and apply new technologies into their classroom instructions.
Governments in East African countries as elsewhere, are more conscious than ever about the importance of ICT in the development of a nation in several aspects, such as educational development, economic growth, social awareness, cultural enrichment and political leadership.
The use of ICT in schools is crucial for the development of economic and social change worldwide. ICT provides opportunities to stimulate learning and increase motivation that enables teachers and students to interact productively with neighboring communities and global economy in a wider and higher scope.
To realize this opportunity, however, technologies need to be part of the curricula. Experts say ICT plays a greater role in generating of knowledge and processing information for problem solving and further exploration.
However, it remains to be seen how teachers use, integrate and invite students to learn, access, gather, process, analyse, transmit and simulate information. “The use of ICT in classroom instruction is a more practical, interactive and innovative aspect rather than theoretical.
In effect, the impact of ICT on education is one of the most critical issues,” Mr Juma Suleimain a computer studies teacher said. Adding: “It’s a powerful instrument that enables practical environment and assists new ways of teaching and learning, and helps students to develop knowledge and skills for cooperation, communication and problem solving.” In many African countries, particularly in East Africa, most teachers do not integrate ICT into their instruction as it should be owing to interrelated factors.
Government in Tanzania has been doing a lot of initiative in the last 40 years when it comes to the development of ICT in the country. In 1960 The Ministry of Education designed educational programmes for students to listen through radios and televisions; The Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) has developed an ICT curriculum, for primary and pre-primary education which is currently implemented in few schools near district headquarters and the schools that have ICT facilities 2007 they started Distance Education Learning Services (DILES).
The DILES project develops and provides the teaching and learning materials for secondary school students in printed and electronic format. 2007 – There were Procurement of Computers for Secondary Schools.
The Tanzania Computer Literacy for Secondary Schools Trust Fund (TCLSS) procures computers for secondary schools and helps them to set up computer laboratories 2010 – There was The Bright Education Trust Fund (BETF) initiative which developed the capacity of teachers and school administrators by teaching them how to use ICT to improve both classroom teaching and the administrative tasks of their respective schools.
Despite these initiatives by the government, many learning institutions from primary to higher learning institutions are conducting teaching and learning process with limited ICT facilities which include few computer laboratories with few computers, few computer access points, limited electricity supply, inadequate infrastructure, the cost of bandwidth is still out of reach of many schools.
To address some technological difficulty, Tanzania inked a Chinese leading technology provider–Huawei in 2015 as the official advisor in the field of ICT. The agreement saw the two developing ‘Seeds for the Future Programme’.
Huawei Managing Director Mr Bruce Zhang Yongquan noted his firm was completely dedicated to the development of ICT industry in Tanzania and to the development of Mobile Broadband services. “Huawei has trained many professional and technical personnel for Tanzania.
This year Huawei invited 10 students to China for cultural exchange and ICT training, to bridge the digital divide for Tanzania and in the future, the firm will continue to cooperate with their partners to empower Tanzania through ICT.”
The program will produce 10 students each year that will be dispatched to its headquarters in Beijing to shape their expertise. The arrangement is designed to take ten years according to Mr Yongquan.