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1.3 TEACHING AND LEARNING AT SECONDARY LEVEL.
Many schools in Tanzania still follow the traditional teacher centred lecture method. The skills and knowledge are transformed to students.
The best learner is the one who can reproduce by memorization. There is very little interaction between the teacher and taught. The teacher
rarely provokes students into asking questions, through this method of teaching has pedagogical merits such as imparting solid information,
this is not always the reason behind the teacher’s choice. It may be quite often a choice because it is a familiar method and gives
importance to teacher.
1.4 INTRODUCTION OF COMPUTERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL.
Introduction of computer literary and computer science in Secondary school curriculum has been seen as an important step forward by the
MOEC; as the demand for ICT Professionals in the country is very high. Computers play a very important role in education, computer as
a tool for study, computer science as a discipline or a profession, computer as a medium for instruction. Computer as a medium for
teaching and learning necessitates changes in curriculum. The ultimate goal is to enable students, to learn explore, and increase the
ability to facilities for acquiring and processing information Tilya 2003
Through the idea of introducing computers sounds great, very little has been done in terms of planning and implementation of computer
courses in public schools. Majority of teachers are still computer illiterate. However, the MOEC asked the heads of public schools to
allocate and prepare a computer labs in their schools, very few schools received computers. The situation in private schools is rather
different, private schools preferred to recruit trained and qualified computer teachers. Most private schools have their computer labs and
children in such school are exposed to computers right from grade I.
IICD International Information Institute for Computer Development had initiated through their round table in 2003, some projects in
education: one of the projects “Professional Development of Teacher using ICT” was taken up by an NGO called “BRIGHT EDUCATION
TRUST FUND” BETF. BETF aimed at training teachers in Secondary schools and Teachers colleges: They prepared their own
syllabus and manual to train the teachers with required basic computer
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skills and their application in their teaching and class management. They already trained 120 teachers so far.. The teachers were very
happy to receive the new skills and they felt confident to applying them in classroom to the extent possible.
The few public schools, which have computers were not using them properly due to lack of trained teachers and commitment from the
leadership. The decision makers from schools to national level are aware of the situation in Tanzania and would like to have computers
in Classrooms for teaching and learning , even
though there is little evidence through Research that that this will improve teaching and
learning. Tilya 2003.THERE IS A NEED TO RESEACH INTO THIS QUESTION . “Would computers improve learning and
teaching in Secondary schools in Tanzania ?”
1.5 MICRO-BASED LABORATORY MBL How it works in Tanzania.