He stressed the need to invest in science and technology, urging the residents to motivate more students to learn science subjects, including giving incentives to those students who excel in science subjects.
Mr Massawe made the call on Wednesday while opening a four day training workshop being attended by over 60 science teachers at Katoke Lweru Secondary School, in Muleba district.
Katoke Lweru computer laboratory has 25 new computers, printers and data projector will open a world of knowledge to students and the wider community.
The computers will assist the students in all areas of the curriculum by learning through current software, he said. Professor Alan Watson, revealed that the school, which was established in 2008 by the Anglican Diocese of Lweru, has a 380 day and boarding students.
He said an Australian-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) had established the Katoke Trust (KT) with aim to strengthen Tanzanian education. He said the Katoke Lweru computer laboratory was established with assistance from the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Sydney, Australia, at a cost of 170,000 US Dollars.
Mr Massawe thanked the Australian government and communities for the generous donation calling upon other donors to emulate the example. He said information technology was very crucial in the development of the nation. He said out of the population of 43 million people in Tanzania, about 4.8 million had access to the internet, compared to Australia where 99 per cent of population have access to the internet.
He further noted that out of the 4.8 million people who access internet, five per cent get the service through internet cafes, 55 per cent depend on public institutions while 40 per cent get the service through their homes. Mr Massawe said more efforts should be made to lower prices of computers to enable more people to buy the software and efforts should be directed on training teachers with computer knowledge.
Kagera region had a total of 239 Secondary schools, out of which 204 were government owned while 35 others were private. Due to limited resources and manpower, only 12 secondary schools offer computer classes.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Meddy Mulisa
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 05.10.2012
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