By Joseph Mchekadona
A National pilot project to combine physical education and academic subjects for Secondary Schools in the country rolls out on Monday next week in Kilimanjaro region.
Speaking in an interview, Denis Makoi who is the chairman of Tanzania Sports Training Center (TSTC), one of the pioneers of the project said the it starts at 24 Secondary Schools of the region and 28 teachers were trained to teach.
He said the project is the first of its kind in the world and will be implemented by Ministry for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism TSTC.
Makoi said the teachers are not physical education oness but went through a one week introductory course at Mawenzi Secondary School in Moshi from February 25 through March this year.
The TSTC official said due to the nature of the project the facilitators used Training for Trainers (TOT) method as they expect the teachers to teach their fellow teachers in their districts and communities.
At the end of the course the teachers were empowered with teaching materials and manuals.
He said the teachers will be attending the courses continuously as what they learnt at Mawenzi was just an introductory which did not tackle crucial issues in detail.
“After the rollout of the project in Kilimanjaro region first of next month, inspection will start on 1 May 2013 and will be carried by sports medicine experts in the region and we a greed that the courses will be continuous until after three years when the teachers will be ready to teach on their own without a supervision” he said.
He said next year the project will expand to other regions of the country.
He said facilitators of the course were from Switzerland, Greece, Tanzania Institute of Education and Global Network of Religious for Children (GNRC).
According to him facilitators from outside the country were sponsored by Switzerland-based Arigatou International.
Makoi said the project, whose fruits are expected after five years, will help to motivate Secondary School students to take physical education as a serious subject and also help to implement the curriculum which he said is idle at many Secondary Schools in the country.
The TSTC chairman said they expect that after five years the country will introduce physical education subject at A level as currently in the country there is no high secondary School which offers physical education lessons.
He also said those who will do physical education at adavanced level education will make the number of students who will enroll for a degree in physical education at the University of Dar es Salaam to raise.
“The physical education and Learn to Live together subjects will help to revive the interest of physical education among secondary school students in the country , we do have the curriculum and the syllabus for physical education subject but you find that its only army and some missionary secondary schools which implement physical education.
By implement I mean students at these Schools do write physical education at form four final National Examinations ”
“The country has more than 3,000 secondary schools and each of them need a qualified physical education teacher, but the number of those who enroll for degree in physical education at the University of Dar es Salaam is not that good, unconfirmed reports say in 2011 only 16 students enrolled for that program”, he said.
Makoi who is also the chairman of Tanzania Tennis Association (TTA) said the project will also help associations to indentify players with basic sports knowledge at secondary schools instead of looking for unpolished talents at grassroots level.
He also said the project will help to build a block for sports tourism in the country, saying sports is a big industry in the world but in the country it has not contributed to national economic development.
Hei also said Learn to live together subject will help students from different backgrounds to learn to appreciate the importance’s of each other.
He said the two subjects, Physical education and Learn to Live together, were combined becouse they have a common ethic of touching people directly.
“Currently the world is facing a lot of challenges, some of them are because people fail to appreciate weakness and strengths of their friends, but this course will help to teach students to know how they can live with people of other backgrounds ” he said.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
