Owners and
managers of private-run schools are at logger-heads with the government
over having governing boards in their institutions as required by the
law.
They protested over the issue at the weekend
during their meeting in Dar es Salaam organised by the Tanzania
Association of Managers and Owners of non-government schools and
colleges (Tamongsco) for Dar es Salaam zone.
They disputed a directive by Dar es Salaam
Regional education officer Raymond Mapunda, who advised them to ensure
their schools have boards to oversee the running of the schools as per
requirements of the law.
He made the observation when he was officially
opening the Tamongosco meeting, which was meant to discuss the rationale
of public-private partnership in the country’s education sector.
“Many of our private schools don’t have boards, something which is against conditions set for school registration,” he said.
Mr Mapunda allayed fears by school owners and managers that the boards will usurp their powers.
“Don’t be afraid of the boards, these are legal
instruments, after all, the owner of the school will remain with his or
her mandate in that capacity,” he told the participants.
He said in many cases the schools without boards
face problems when an owner takes certain disciplinary actions including
dismissing a pupil.
The school owners disagreed with the call at the sideline of the meeting.
Tamongsco Dar es Salaam zone chairman Albert
Katagira said they would be ready to form boards in their schools if the
government reviewed the existing law and ensure that owners become part
of the governing boards.
Mr Katagira, who is director of Tusiime Schools,
told The Citizen that the current law does not mention owners as part of
the board, he said.
For his part, Tamongosco secretary general
Benjamin Nkonya said having school boards was most unnecessary. “These
boards will only push up the already high cost of running our schools,”
he argued.
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