PRESS SUMMARIES-14 October 2014 Nyerere: The ultimate man of the people Today Tanzanians commemorate the death of the Founding Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who on this day of the month in 1999 died at Saint Thomas Hospital, in London. Now Mwalimu Nyerere is no longer with us, but his ideas and the values he stood for live on, at least among the patriotic and conscientious among us who aren’t swayed by greed, corruption and lust for power. No one would say Mwalimu was an angel. He was very much human like the rest of us. He had his omissions and commissions that could have hurt some in his capacity as a leader or simply, as an individual. However, when measured by his stand, his visionary leadership and expression of his people’s aspirations, his role in the liberation of Africa, his plusses far exceed his minuses. He will forever be remembered for his country’s industrial development drive. He desired to lead a country that consumed what it produced. To read more click: thecitizen.co.tz/oped/EDITORIAL--Nyerere--The-ultimate-man-of-the-people/-/1840568/2485624/-/lnypnv/-/index.html Teachers shortage hurting Tanzania Tanzania is one of the top ten countries globally with the highest projection of total number of teachers who have to be recruited by 2030. According to the new report released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Education for All Global Monitoring Report on World Teachers’ Day, Tanzania needs to recruit at least 406,600 new teachers by 2030. However, lack of funding and low production of teachers from higher learning institutions, among other reasons, are cited as major challenges facing the teaching profession. In Tanzania, training a teacher from nursery to university costs Sh100 million. The country has a shortage of 26,000 teachers, according to the ministry of Education and Vocational Training. According to UNESCO’s report, closely following Tanzania is Uganda, which stands as the tenth most needy country in teacher recruitment. According to the statistics, Uganda needs at least 372,800 new teachers by 2030. Other African countries leading the league of ten most needy countries are Nigeria at number four and Democratic Republic of Congo at number seven. The new data released by UNESCO shows a chronic lack of trained teachers in many countries. (Mwananchi, The Citizen, et al) Donors support: Govt plans in limbo Government funding of critical projects and programmes could be disrupted following the decision by key donors to withhold $558 million (about Sh950 billion) in budget support over corruption concerns. Plans for the referendum on the proposed new constitution, bio-metric voter registration kits (BVRs) and preparations for the local government elections slated for December are some of the government undertakings that could be affected. Others are the ongoing issuance of the national identity cards (IDs), preparations for the 2015 General Election and the rollout of projects in the health, infrastructure, energy and education sectors. A huge chunk of the donor money is usually directed at the social sectors. As a result, concern is mounting that the action by the donor group – comprising Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the European Commission, Ireland, Germany, Britain, Norway, Canada, Japan, the World Bank and the African Development Bank to withhold funding – could seriously impact on the smooth government operations. According to Ms Kati Manner, head of cooperation at the Finnish Embassy in Dar es Salaam, only $69 million (Sh110 billion) has been released to the Treasury so far. The government is yet to give the NEC Sh290 billion it requested to buy BVRs for the overhaul of voter register. This has forced the electoral body to push back the registration from September to December. Principal secretary for Finance Servacius Likwelile told the media recently that the government had only released Sh21.5 billion out of the approved budget of Sh133 for the NEC project. Pressure will mount with the declared interest for a referendum ahead of the 2015 polls. Other sources within the diplomatic community, who sought anonymity, informed The Citizen that matters would be complicated further as the US was also contemplating to suspend the final approval of some $700 million for Tanzania under the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC-II) funding over the same IPTL scandal. ( The Citizen, et al) Most breast cancer victims lack access to medication Only 10 per cent of women with cervical and breast cancer in the country go for screening and treatment while the remaining 90 per cent fail to access the services due to inadequacy of facilities and lack of awareness over the disease. This was revealed yesterday in Dar es Salaam by Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI) consultant radiation oncologist, Dr. Dominista Kombe, during the launch of breast cancer awareness campaign month which is held in October every year. Dr. Kombe said a big number of women in the country have developed cervical and breast cancer but only 10 per cent of them can access treatment while majority live with the disease without being aware of it. According to Dr. Kombe, it is estimated that 40,000 women develop cervical and breast cancer annually but only 4000 to 5000 get treatment. She cautioned that Tanzania is has some of Africa’s highest reported cases of cervical and breast cancer. She said half of cancer patients at the ORCI are women with cervical cancer which accounts for 40 per cent of cases followed by breast cancer. Minister Simba called upon members of the society and stakeholders to direct more efforts in combating the disease in order to widen the government capability in providing medical service for women who are the most affected group in the society. (All Media) International News UN medical worker dies of Ebola in Germany A German hospital has said that a UN medical worker who was infected with Ebola in Liberia has died despite intensive medical procedures. The St Georg hospital in Leipzig said on Tuesday that the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection. It released no further details. The man tested positive for Ebola on October 6 and arrived in Leipzig for treatment on October 9 where he was put into a special isolation unit. Local health officials said last week that the patient was a Sudanese doctor who had arrived in Germany. Germany has previously treated two other Ebola patients infected in Sierra Leone - a Senegalese expert who was treated in Hamburg and released on October 4, and a Ugandan doctor now being treated in Frankfurt. The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 4,000 people this year, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and is spread through close contact with bodily fluids. The US and UN leaders on Monday called for more robust international efforts to tackle Ebola after medics in Liberia demanded danger money to treat patients in what officials termed the worst health crisis of modern times. (World Media)
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:17:24 +0000
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