Time the govt reviewed rare professionals’ salaries

Time the govt reviewed rare professionals’ salaries

Tanzania has lately been facing numerous problems, from power rationing to water problems and from lack of trained manpower to inadequate food. Yet, statistics show that the country could solve a number of the foregoing problems if only it paid its professionals handsomely. ATTILIO TAGALILE argues on the need for the present government to review salaries of rare professionals so that they can remain at home and help in the country’s reconstruction.

On Monday when President Jakaya Kikwete addressed the nation from the State House, he said the fact that a number of southern African countries were employing professionals from Tanzania showed that our education system was not as bad as it was made to look like.

The president was responding to a question from one of the senior editors who had wanted to know what the Government was doing to stem the brain drain of Tanzanian professionals. What forced the president to dwell on the quality, if you like, of Tanzanian professionals was the editor’s argument that our education system was no longer what it used to be.

That it had to a great extent been marred by what came to be known as Universal Primary School Education, laconically referred to as UPE which was introduced in 1973.

The Editor’s argument, which holds water, was that in an attempt to ensure that as many children as possible get primary school education, the first phase Government of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere educated as many teachers as possible without regard to the academic quality of such teachers.

The senior editor therefore expressed concern what the last and the present governments were doing, to ensure that as many pupils as possible get to secondary schools could, at the end of the day, lead to another UPE!

President Kikwete was however, quick to allay the fears of the senior journalist by saying that while his government continued with the objective of ensuring that as many pupils as possible get into secondary schools, it was simultaneously ensuring that it got highly qualified teachers.

“That is why we have decided that whoever wants to take a degree in education, the government would sponsor him or her,” the president said.

He went on to note that his government had actually called on even private universities to start training teachers for primary and secondary schools and that the government would be ready to sponsor such trainee teachers.

“It is actually in realisation of this,” the president said that, “we have decided to convert Chang’ombe Teachers College and Mkwawa High School into constituent colleges of the University of Dar es Salaam,” he said.

The two institutions are specifically tasked to train secondary and college teachers. The president argued that the faculty of education at the University of Dar es Salaam trains not more than 500 secondary school teachers per annum.

He said the number was not enough to fill teaching posts in secondary schools that were being built literally every day. “But we cannot at the same time tell our people to stop building secondary schools because we don’t have teachers…that would be wrong. We would be demoralising them,” he said.

He then set out to show why he thought our education standard was improving, hence the need not to discourage Tanzanians from building more and more secondary schools.

He said according to available statistics, in the year 2000, 22 per cent of pupils passed standard seven examination.

Other annual performances with their passing percentages in brackets are as follows. In the year 2001 (28.6 per cent), 2002 (27 per cent), 2003 (40 per cent), 2004 (48 per cent) and 2005 (61.8 per cent). He said next year over 400,000 pupils would demand places in form one secondary schools in the country.

The president however, stressed that, that countries like Botswana and others in southern Africa continued to employ our doctors and engineers showed clearly that our education was not as bad as we think it is.

One thing the President however, admitted was that there was a need to improve our education so that the country can benefit from its educated human resource.

The president’s comment on the need to improve education in the country may not have come at a more appropriate time.

Indeed, countries like Brazil, South Korea, Singapore, India, China and Malaysia which are lately referred to as the emergent nations would not have reached where they are without laying accent on quality education.

Any nation that gives education of its people lip service is bound to fail in its endeavour to improve its socio-economic development. As noted by the president, the fact that Tanzanian professionals are highly sought after in southern African countries may serve as an indicator that our education is not as bad as we think.

Yet, there is also a need for Tanzanians, especially policy makers to start asking themselves serious questions why such highly trained professionals are leaving the country.

For instance, there are reports that all district medical officers in Namibia come fromTanzania. It is important therefore to find out what sent them to Namibia in the first place, leaving the country that had given them both academic and professional training in the medical field.

The same thing could be said about other professionals like pilots, flight engineers and other aircraft technicians and other professionals. It is an open secret that over 40 Tanzanian pilots are working for foreign airlines not only in southern African countries but also abroad.

For instance, the Royal Dutch Airlines, KLM, is presently known to have employed Tanzanian flight engineers, the same engineers who were trained and serviced Air Tanzania Corporation, ATC.

That Tanzania has been able to export so many experts is certainly good news and augurs well for the reputation of this country. But then does it really make sense in fields like say, medicine where Tanzania has failed to meet the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) benchmark of one doctor for between 8,000 and 10,000 people to pride itself in exporting its doctors?

As we pride ourselves in exporting highly trained professionals abroad, our neighbours Kenya and Uganda have met the WHO’s benchmark.

For example, statistics show that in Kenya, there is presently one doctor for every 8,000 people. The same thing could be more or less said about Uganda. The East African country has one doctor for every 10,000 people.

However, the situation in Tanzania is pathetic. According to last year’s statistics the country had 800 doctors. Yet, records show that the country has trained more than that number but the problem is that some of them are working in neighbouring countries!

The point is, there is every likelihood that both Kenya and Uganda have been able to meet the WHO benchmark through the assistance of Tanzania which has been training medical doctors for other countries!

Right now, the country has been looking for ways of privatising the Tanzania Railways Corporation, TRC, on the ground that it cannot run it efficiently and profitably.

Yet, this is one of the institutions that has had all sort of engineers, from mechanical to electrical, engineers who could put back the Canadian built railway engines if only they would be provided with funds to purchase the requisite spare parts.

The same thing is found in the Tanzania Electric Supply Company, Tanesco. The company has all sorts of electrical engineers and technicians who have been maintaining highly sophisticated plants such as Kidatu and one of the most sophisticated hydro electric power plants, Kihansi, which is operated and run by Tanzanians.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Having said that, what should be done? Are we contented with the present situation in which the country has been turned into exporter of professionals who are very much needed at home?
The relevance of this question lies in the fact that there are a number of regions in the country which do not have even regional surgeons!

Yet, there are a number of Tanzanian surgeons working just across the border! At one time Uganda recruited a tax expert from Tanzania who had been discarded by his own nation to go to Kampala and help in working out a new, workable tax regime.

When the Tanzanian completed his contract, putting that country into one of the best tax collectors in the continent, earning in the process, kudos from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF, we woke up from our deep slumber.

There are presently a number of our leaders travelling abroad for medical check which could easily be done within the country if the Government had provided our doctors with not only state of the art equipment but requisite motivation by giving them humane emoluments.

We have not done that and instead are losing, in droves, our highly trained experts in various fields. One cardiologist arrived in the country a few years ago having performed numerous heart operations abroad.

He tried to establish a heart institute in the country where Tanzanians with defective or heart problems could be operated on. Your guess is as good as mine. He faced so many difficulties that he had to go an extra mile to establish the institute.

Those involved in providing such a man with licence did not have a care in the world despite the man showing his state of the art equipment. A friend of mine in the newsroom the other day narrated a case of his own youg brother, a medical doctor, Jackson Maile.

The young man was stationed in Lindi, south eastern Tanzania. Given the poor working conditions and in particular, emoluments, he left for United States where he was finally accorded US citizen.

As you read this piece, Dr Maile has established a hospital and Americans queue to his hospital for treatment!

The present fourth phase government is presently involved in trying to revive the economy, and in particular, in providing jobs as per its pledge of one million. It may not be a bad idea if it started by improving emoluments of doctors and engineers so that they may return home and save millions of lives.

It is important for the government to realise that living expenses in the country have gone up quite considerably. However, there are certain professionals the nation could retain them in the country by giving them reasonable emoluments.

For instance, doctors travel to seek jobs in countries like Botswana for two to three thousands US dollars. The same doctors would remain in the country if they were given a net salary of half of the amount. What is the real situation at present? It is pathetic to say the least. Our doctors are the lowest paid in East Africa.

No wonder last year we had not less than three strikes that saw the last government doing what can at best be described as unthinkable! They sacked most of the doctors on the ground that they had violated medical ethics.

Fine, it was wrong for the doctors to play music in the course of their strike, but that was the third strike and the doctors, pharmacists and nurses were desperate. Even when the strikers apologised to the then government, the government of the day remained adamant, sticking to the ethic thing!

The other day, a private television station carried a talk show programme that showed that despite having a number of foreign mining companies, our locally trained (at university level) geologists are jobless.

Foreign mining companies would rather employ foreign geologists rather than locally trained geologists. It is these conducts on the part of some of our investors that should awaken the government that there is something wrong somewhere.

Yes, why should such mining companies be wary of highly trained local mining engineers?
Certainly they have something to hide. It is therefore important for the government to work out an emolument structure that would keep certain professionals such as medical doctors, engineers and others at home rather than abroad.

Highly developed countries like United States, Germany, France and others actually lure highly trained foreigners with money.

There have been cases where they have gone to the extent of giving such foreigners nationality.

Instead of looking for foreign experts, it is time the government lured our own highly trained professionals from neighbouring countries to return and help develop their own country.

No one is going to develop this country, except sons and daughters of this country.

The government ought to realize that when highly trained professionals like medical doctors, engineers, join politics instead of practising their profession, that goes to show that there is something awfully wrong in our salary structures.

Ends.