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GPA COUNTS?

By: Gorwe J. Waryoba

Grade Points Average (GPA), is the average points grade acquired by a learner at a given time of completion of a certain course of study: especially, in collages and Universities. Where, there are different grading systems according to different collages and / or Universities. For example, 4.4 – 5.0 GPA (70 - 100% Marks = A) is termed as First class; 3.5 – 4.3 GPA (60 – 69% Marks = B+), is termed as the Second Class Upper; 2.7 - 3.4 GPA (50 – 59% Marks = B), is termed as the Second Class Lower, and 2.0 – 2.6 GPA (40 – 49% Marks = C), is termed as Pass (Third Class): according to Tanzania grading system. However, SAUT grades differently in terms of ‘marks’, whereby, the same GPA’s marks are graded as follow: 80 – 100% = A, 70 – 79% = B+, 60 – 69%  = B, and 50 – 59% = C.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Vocational Training (MESVT), of Tanzania, through Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU): has currently put it clear, that for one to join undergraduate degree, from a diploma level on any other qualification; must have a minimum of 3.0 GPA. Thus, those who are under 3.0 GPA, will not excel their academic to the higher level (degree) in Tanzania.

When it comes to further studies: different Universities have their criteria on the minimum qualification of entry to certain degree programme. For example, in order to pursue a certain master degree in the University of Dar es Salaam: one must have a minimum of 3.5 GPA in his/her respective bachelor degree. Currently, in St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT), one has to be with a GPA of at least 2.7 in order to join a given master degree, and at least a GPA of 3.0 to join a PhD as opposed to the previous criteria of 3.5 GPA. Hence, GPA counts.

Employments in different institutions, such as Higher learning institutions: Colleges and Universities needs and a certain minimum GPA qualification for one to be employed in that institution. For example, most of them needs one to have 3.8 GPA 4.0 GPA and above. Thus, GPA counts in  acquiring a job in these institutions.

When it comes to leadership, and positions in the St. Augustine Universities of Tanzania Students’ Organisation (SAUTSO); GPA counts. Since, one cannot compete or fill on President’s position, and / or Members of Parliament (MP) from Second years (or third years for those whose programme takes four years), and the Ministers in respective ministries: if one does not have a minimum of 3.5 GPA. Thus, GPA counts in here.

Still, there have been rumours in the country, that the government will be employing only people with the minimum qualification of 3.5 GPA starting this government year 2016/2017; especially, in education sector: secondary schools. However, there is no official announcement by the government of Tanzania.

However, some institutions discourage hiring experts with high GPA like first class: since they say, that those experts with highest GPA, are expensive, and proud of their qualification rather than using their knowledge and skills for the company’s betterment. Thus, they prefer workers whose GPA are at average level, as far as they are concerned.

They argue that GPA  doesn’t count when it comes to competence at work. There are lot of graduates with high GPA whom have low performance in their work. They are incapable of applying the knowledge their have acquired. Mbiti (2007:5), argues that: “paper qualification without proper work attitudes cannot yield much. Efficiency of work is a combination of both skills and proper attitudes where employees are concerned”.

All in all, GPA matters in many things and fields. Therefore, when you get an opportunity to study a certain programme, in any level of education: try your best to acquire high marks as much as you can, since GPA counts in many field, no matter what. It’s my hope that everyone in the campus should do his or her best to earn a good GPA in that respective programme. God bless you.

Contact:

gorwewm@gmail.com

http://gorwewm.blogspot.com

https://mytanzaniatoday.blogspo.com

SAUT: STOP COMPLAINING, LET US STUDY

By: Gorwe J. Waryoba

Let me start this discussion by citing some quotations from different scholars on education.  Mandela argues that, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the World”. However, Aristotle states that, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruits are sweet”. Its high time now, to start afresh with a new spirit, new power, new courage, and new mindset towards study, in this year of study 2016/2017.

As far as I am concerned, as a student at St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) for the third year now; even before joining the University: there had have been a lot of complaints and talks on the number of courses offered and the fixed time table at SAUT. Some students complain, that there are so many courses; which are so much involved at a short period of time. They lament that, when you enter into the campus, you become too busy, no time to rest.

Then, I wonder! When  I hear, even the secondary school pupils, who have not yet even entered in any University:  hearing them discussing on the matter, just by “only hear sayings” from some of  SAUT students on the street. Hence, when some choose and/ or selected to SAUT: as the first year students, they start following the same beat (complaining), which they had have been heard on the SAUT academic matters: even before starting their study.

However, there are good news that I am told by different people and I always here from different industries, and the streets I pass through all over the country about the high proficiency of graduates from the SAUT: in their field of study. If I can sight an example, in the field of education, which I am in; when we do go to the “field practice” in different schools, we meet with various student teachers from different Universities: student teachers from SAUT do the best, as far as academic matters are concerned. If I try to make my reflections on all the happenings, I thank God for the opportunity that I got to be selected to study at SAUT.

Therefore, I would like to urge you, SAUT students; study hard and not to complain about the number of courses and the fixed time table that we have in our University. These are the things which make us the best in our specialisations, and help us be useful, and marketable Worldwide; in different industries and the society at large. The nature of the University  mould us to be multipurpose, and self – reliants   in our lives. “Stop complaining let us study”. 

Contact:

gorwewm@gmail.com

MWL. NYERERE: THE FATHER OF TANZANIA

Julius Nyerere 1922–1999

Former president of Tanzania

At a Glance…

Architect of Independence

President of the Republic

President of Tanzania

Ujamaa

His Legacy

Selected writings

Sources

When he stepped down as president of Tanzania in 1985, one of the few African rulers ever to relinquish power voluntarily, Julius Nyerere cemented his reputation as one of the continent’s greatest leaders. The first African from his former British colony, Tanganyika, to attend a university in the mother country, he returned to spearhead his nation’s struggle for independence, becoming its first president. Re-elected four times, he also earned the right to be called Mwalimu, the Teacher, by his countrymen, Nyerere’s 24-year leadership was highlighted by the peaceful union of Tanganyika and neighboring Zanzibar into Tanzania and his commitment to remake the nation into a self-sufficient egalitarian socialist society based on cooperative agriculture.

Though his economic policies fell short of his far-sighted goal, Nyerere managed to introduce free and universal education, greatly raising the nation’s literacy rate, and vastly improved health care for the majority of the population. He also instilled a sense of national pride among Tanzania’s diverse tribes, sparing it the vicious tribal conflicts of so many other African countries. Besides being a major force behind the modern Pan-African movement, Nyerere of African Unity, united five African nations to successfully pressure the white-supremacist government of Rhodesia into becoming black-ruled Zimbabwe, and ousted Idi Amin, the tyrannical dictator of Uganda, from power. His accomplishments and stature have led many to call him “the conscience of Africa” and have made him one of the Third World’s most prominent statesmen and spokesmen.

It was raining so hard the day Nyerere was born in March of 1922 that he was named Kambarage after an ancestral spirit who lived in the rain. Home was the village of Butiama, southeast of Lake Victoria and west of the Serengeti Plain in the British colony of Tanganyika. Years later, when he was baptized a Catholic, he took the name Julius. Nyerere’s father, Nyerere Burito, was village chief of the Zanaki, one of the smallest of Tanganyika’s 126 tribes. Young Nyerere, one of eight children from his father’s fifth marriage, had a traditional tribal childhood—growing up in a leaky mud hut, having his teeth filed in the Zanaki manner, and spending much of his younger years hunting. Being the son of the chief, he went to school at 12 for instruction in Catholicism, Swahili, and English. He scored first in the 1936 territorial examinations and was enrolled in the Tabora Governmental School, originally built for the sons of tribal chieftains.

On graduating, he entered Makerere College in neighboring

At a Glance…

Born Kambarage Nyerere, March of 1922, in Butiama-Musoma, Lake Victoria, Tanganyika; took the name Julius when baptized a Catholic; son of Nyerere Burito (village chief of the Zanaki tribe) and Mugaya; married Maria Gabriel Magige (a teacher), January 24, 1953; children: five sons, two daughters. Education: Makerere College, Uganda, graduated in 1945; Edinburgh University, Scotland, M.A., 1952. Politics: Chama cha Mapinduzi (Revolutionary Party). Religion: Catholic.

Biology and history teacher at St. Mary’s College, Tabora, Tanganyika, 1946-49; history teacher at St. Francis’ College, Pugu, Tanganyika, 1953-55. Elected president, Tanganyika African Association (TAA), 1953; transformed TAA into Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), and served as president, 1954-77; appointed to temporary position on Tanganyika Legislative Council (TLC), 1954; addressed United Nations Trusteeship Council, 1955; elected member of TLC, 1958-60; chief minister of TLC, 1960; prime minister of Tanganyika, 1961-62; president, Tanganyika Republic, 1962-64; president, the United Republic of Tanzania, 1964-85; founder and chairman of Chama cha Mapinduzi, 1977-90.

First chancellor, University of East Africa, 1963-70; chancellor, University of Dar es Salaam, 1970-85, Sokoine University of Agriculture, 1984—; chairman, Organization of African Unity, 1984.

Awards:

 Third World Award, 1981; named Distinguished Son of Africa, 1988; honorary degrees.

Addresses: Home —Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Office — P.O. Box 71000, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Uganda, where he organized the campus chapter of the Tanganyika African Association (TAA), begun years earlier as a social group for African civil servants. After his 1945 graduation from Makerere, he taught history and biology by day at St. Mary’s College, a Catholic school in Tabora, and English to the townspeople during the evening. Many nights he stayed up late discussing politics and Tanganyika’s future with his friends.

With a grant from St. Mary’s and a government scholarship, Nyerere traveled to Scotland in 1949 to attend Edinburgh University, becoming the first Tanganyikan to study at a British university. During his years abroad, he became enthralled with the socialist ideology of the British labor movement. Returning home with a master’s degree in history and economics in 1952, he married Maria Magige the following year and began teaching history at St. Francis’ College in Pugu, just outside Dar es Salaam, the colonial capital and largest city of Tanganyika.

Architect of Independence

Small, unpretentious, soft-spoken, and quick to laugh, Nyerere impressed his less-educated countrymen with his willingness to talk and work with them as equals. In addition, he was a dynamic orator and unusually politically perceptive. Three months after arriving at St. Francis’, Nyerere was elected president of the TAA. Shortly thereafter, in July of 1954, he transformed the TAA into a political party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), and began agitating for Tanganyikan independence. Under his leadership, the organization espoused anticolonialism but stressed peaceful change, racial harmony, and social equality for all.

Recognizing his growing stature, Tanganyika’s British governor, Sir Edward Twining, appointed Nyerere to a temporary vacancy on the colony’s Legislative Council in 1954. The following year TANU sent Nyerere to New York to address the United Nations Trusteeship Council. Granted a hearing, he asked that the UN set a date for Tanganyikan independence and recognize the principle that the colony’s future government be led by Africans. Though the British government rejected his demands, the debate established Nyerere as his country’s preeminent nationalist spokesman.

Returning to Tanganyika, he resigned his teaching post to devote himself fully to campaigning for independence. For the next several years he tirelessly toured the countryside preaching anticolonialism without racial strife while building TANU into a powerful political organization, the membership of which grew from 100,000 in 1955 to a half million in 1957.

This hard work paid off in 1958 when TANU candidates won all the seats available to them on the Legislative Council in the colony’s first free elections. In the unrestricted election of 1960, TANU candidates won 70 of the total 71 seats, and Nyerere became chief minister. The understanding and mutual trust that developed between Nyerere and the new British governor, Sir Richard Turnbull, during independence negotiations helped make the bloodless transition period one of the most peaceful of any African nation. Other key factors were the large number of tribes in Tanganyika, which made it difficult for any one to dominate affairs, and the relatively small number of whites living in the colony.

Nyerere became prime minister in May of 1961 when Tanganyika achieved self-government; complete independence came that December. Six weeks after independence, Nyerere resigned his post to devote himself to fortifying TANU to aid “the creation of a country in which the people take a full and active part in the fight against poverty, ignorance, and disease,” he was quoted as saying in a biography by William Edgett Smith. Within six months, the new TANU-led government had abolished the powers and salaries of the country’s hereditary chiefs.

President of the Republic

But Nyerere could not stay away long. He was elected president of the new republic in November of 1962, receiving 98.1 percent of the vote. Pondering the meaning of a one-party democracy, he wrote a pamphlet, “Democracy and the Party System,” explaining that parties like TANU “were not formed to challenge any ruling group of our own people; they were formed to challenge foreigners who ruled us. They were not, therefore, political parties, i.e., factions, but nationalist movements.”

Following the election, TANU opened party membership to non-Africans and began the “Africanization” of the country’s civil service. Several hundred British employees were cashiered with severance pay and left Tanganyika so that by the end of 1963, roughly half of the senior- and middle-grade posts were held by Africans, many insufficiently trained. Western nations stepped up their criticism of Tanganyika’s one-party system. “Africanization” officially ended in 1964.

The new president turned his attention to African affairs, seeking means to better unite the continent’s newly independent nations. He was one of the founders of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 and the driving force behind Tanganyika, Kenya, and Uganda forming the East African Community in 1967, a common market and administrative union that operated a wide range of shared services for the three countries.

Meanwhile, trouble was brewing at home. Zanzibar, an island 24 miles off the coast of Tanganyika, received its independence from Great Britain in December of 1963. One month later, the island’s African majority successfully revolted, seizing power from the traditional ruling Arab minority. Scarcely a week later, in January of 1964, a small group of Tanganyikan soldiers mutinied, causing Nyerere to flee the State House. Simultaneously, similar military coups erupted in neighboring Kenya and Uganda. All three governments immediately called on Great Britain for military assistance against their own armies. With British help, the attempted coups were quickly extinguished.

But Zanzibar’s continued instability worried Nyerere. Its new government quickly accepted aid from China, East Germany, and the U.S.S.R., becoming in the eyes of the West the “Cuba of East Africa.” In April of 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form a new country, the United Republic of Tanzania, with Nyerere as its president. The union was widely interpreted as a victory for Western interests in the region.

President of Tanzania

Nyerere was re-elected president in 1965 with 96 percent of the vote. On a state visit to China that year, he was impressed by its progress since liberation and struck by the relevance of Chinese problems to those of Tanzania. Close relations ensued between the two countries, and the Chinese agreed to finance and build a new railroad to connect the Tanzanian capital and major seaport, Dar es Salaam, with the neighboring, landlocked country of Zambia.

Nyerere’s shift toward the East continued when he broke off diplomatic relations with England in 1965 over Rhodesia—Britain had allowed white settlers in that African colony to declare independence, thereby thwarting the wishes of the black majority. Nyerere organized five African nations to officially oppose white-minority rule in that runaway colony as well as in South Africa, Namibia, and the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola. To that end, Tanzania became the home base for nationalist freedom movements in those lands. By 1992, all but South Africa were independent and governed by black leaders.

Condemning white racism, oppression, and misrule while ignoring similar actions by black rulers was not within Nyerere’s conscience; in 1972 he denounced Uganda’s Idi Amin when the brutal dictator expelled all Asians from that country. When Ugandan troops invaded and annexed a small border area of Tanzania in 1978, Nyerere appealed to the OAU for action, without success. The following year, 45,000 Tanzanian troops supported Ugandan exiles seeking to liberate their homeland. Within months Amin was toppled and former Ugandan president Milton Obote returned to power. Africa had successfully policed itself.

Ujamaa

From the beginning, Nyerere’s goal had been to build his largely rural, impoverished country into an egalitarian socialist society based on cooperative agriculture. His 1967 Arusha Declaration set out the principles by which he meant to accomplish this. It collectivized village farmlands, established mass literacy programs, instituted free and universal education, and nationalized the country’s banks, commerce, and major industries. At the same time, the declaration established a strict code of ethics for political leaders, prohibiting them from receiving more than one salary, owning rental property, or holding shares in private corporations. Nyerere also stressed that Tanzania must become economically self-sufficient, depending on its own peasant agricultural economy rather than foreign aid and investment.

Calling his experiment in African socialism ujamaa (Swahili for familyhood), Nyerere emphasized economic cooperation, racial and tribal harmony, and self-sacrifice. But his dream came at a cost: More than 13 million peasants were resettled, sometimes forcibly, into 8,000 cooperative villages so that medical services, water, and schools could be more easily provided. State-run corporations, called parastatals, set and controlled imports, exports, agricultural production, and ran the newly nationalized industries.

Results were discouraging. Agricultural production plummeted, with the yield of some crops like sisal and cashews declining by 50 percent. Food became scarce, and agricultural imports skyrocketed in order to feed the growing population. Peasant farmers were never able to accept the new collective farms, and by 1985, nearly 85 percent of them had returned to subsistence farming. Of the 330 companies nationalized, in industries ranging from clothes to cloves, nearly half went bankrupt; the survivors were working at only 20 percent of capacity. Declining government revenues coupled with increasing expenditures caused inflation-producing budget deficits. The national currency fell in value, per capita income was $250—one of the lowest in the world—and Tanzania’s gross national product (GNP) decreased annually. Only the infusion of $10 billion in foreign aid from 1970 to 1990 kept the economy afloat.

Critics blamed poor management and a bloated, inefficient state bureaucracy, which controlled the failed parastatals, for turning the country into “an economic basket case,” according to an international banker quoted in a 1985 issue of Time. Supporters ascribed the failure of ujamaa to collapsing world market prices for Tanzanian agricultural exports like coffee, tea, tobacco, and cotton, while prices for the country’s imports, including oil and machinery, rose sharply. The dissolution of the East African Community in 1977 and war with Uganda two years later also greatly taxed the national treasury.

His Legacy

Yet in many ways Nyerere’s policies vastly improved the lives of his countrymen. Tanzania has one of the highest adult-literacy rate in Africa, primary school enrollment has jumped from 25 percent of the child population at independence to 95 percent, 50 percent of the population now has clean water, the number of hospitals and rural health centers—as well as doctors—has zoomed, infant mortality has declined, and life expectancy has increased from 35 to 51 years. Tanzania’s citizens possess national pride, there is little tribal strife, and the country remains politically stable, a rarity on the African continent.

Though his dreams of a Pan-African union and ujamaa did not materialize, Nyerere remained a popular figure in Tanzania and throughout Africa. Re-elected president in 1970, 1975, and 1980, he retired in 1985 but continued as chairman of the Chama cha Mapinduzi (Revolutionary Party), created by the merger of TANU and Zanzibar’s ruling party, until 1990. Being one of the few African rulers to voluntarily relinquish power only reinforced his moral stature and worldwide perception of his personal integrity. And typical of Nyerere’s overriding commitment to Tanzania was his choice of successor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, former president of Zanzibar, a move designed to preserve the unity of the nation.

Nyerere’s 24-year rule was unsullied by scandal or corruption, a rarity on the African continent, and his devotion to egalitarian ideals was never seriously questioned. Apparently uninterested in seeking personal wealth, he maintained modest housing and had earned a presidential salary lower than that of his cabinet ministers. “He is above corruption,” stated a political opponent quoted in Time on Nyerere’s 1985 retirement. “He never sought power for power’s sake. He is a real man of the people.”

Selected writings

Uhuru na Umoja (Freedom and Unity), 1967.

Uhuru na Ujamaa (Freedom and Socialism), 1968.

Ujamaa (Essays on Socialism), 1969.

Uhuru na Maendeleo (Freedom and Development), 1973.

Also author of the pamphlet “Democracy and the Party System”; translator of Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice into Swahili.

Sources

 Books
Smith, William Edgett, We Must Run While They Walk: A Portrait of Africa’s Julius Nyerere, Random House, 1971.

Periodicals
Christian Century, March 1, 1972.

Current History, April 1985; May 1988.

Economist, June 2, 1990; August 24, 1991.

Harper’s, July 1981.

Newsweek, October 26, 1981.

New Yorker, March 3, 1986.

Time, November 4, 1985.

U.S. News & World Report, March 26, 1979.

—James J. Podesta

PRESIDENT MAGUFULI TO BUY TWO MORE AIRPLANES

Tanzania starts standing up again: After a long struggle for many years in Air transport; Tanzania has managed to buy two brand new Airplanes, Bombardier 8Q400 from Canada. The Airplanes have a carrying capacity of 76 passengers per each: six passengers in business class and the remaining seventy passengers in economy class. They arrived on 20th September, 2016 and on 27th September 2016 respectively in Dar es Salaam.

Yesterday, 28/09/2016, during the opening of the new phase for Air Transport in Tanzania, for having these new planes: the president of Tanzania, Dr. John Joseph Pombe Mangufuli, on his speech; announced on buying two more large Airplanes for long routes like, from Tanzania to the United States, Tanzania to China, Tanzania to Germany among others.

The carrying capacity of the two Airplanes will be; 160 and 240 passengers. This is to encourage and attract tourist in the country, since the time being many tourists have to alight to neighbouring countries before, coming to Tanzania; due to lack of  National Airplanes from abroad direct to Tanzania. He insisted that, Tanzania should be the Hab of Africa in Air Transportation.

Among other things the president boldly insisted on good management of the new planes. He also, ordered the new ATCL management to fire all whom concerned with corruption of the company's properties. So that to start afresh with only disciplined workers for the betterment of the company and the country at large.

ARE YOU THE GREAT?

Great challenges, are for great men,
Great responsibilities, are for great leaders,
Great readers, are great leaders,
Great thinkers, are great philosophers.

Great writers, are great teachers,
Great teachers, teach great things,
Great parents, inspire great visions,
Great students, score great marks.

ARE YOU THE GREAT?

THE FORGOTTEN SAUTSO FUNCTIONS

                    

Article 6.1.1 and 6.1.2 of St. Augustine University of Tanzania Students Organisation (SAUTSO) constitution of 2015 states the functions of SAUTSO as: “To organize, debates, seminars, workshops, congresses, study tours and symposia to enhance intellectual and political awareness to the student’s community (article 6.1.1).

To invite at any time without violating University time table and after consulting the University Administration, any distinguished personalities [sic] such as national, social, academic and cultural leaders to interact with panel or group discussion, workshop, etc (article  6.1.2)”.

The question here is that, are these SAUTSO functions forgotten by every SAUTSO regime? Being my second year at SAUT, I have experienced two SAUTSO regimes; where none of them touched or bothered to implement what is stated by the SAUTSO constitution of 2015 which are very important SAUTSO functions.

University is a place where new ideas are nurtured and created, it’s a place where learners are expected to be problem solvers in the society. I wonder why the SAUTSO regimes are relactant to implement these functions, and give the opportunity to learners to take part in socio-cultural and political issues?  How can intellectuals be built? If they are not exposed and / or not fully engaged in different debates, academic paper presentations, discussions among others: how can they face this challenging world?

We have good Professors, Doctors, and other lecturers in our University, how do we use these valuable human resources outside the classroom to enrich academic competence and performance of the students and SAUT community at large? We can use these distinguished personalities to enrich our knowledge, skills, attitude and values for the betterment of our country, and the World at large.

There is an urgent need for the new regime under Ayo to remember and implement these forgotten SAUTSO functions for the betterment of the SAUT community. The SAUTSO government can plan to have at least one event monthly, especially week days: this is possible as far as our University time table is concerned.

 Let us be taught how to think, reason, and argue. Let us be taught entrepreneurship skills and social skills. Let us interact with each other and exchange our experience, skills, knowledge, values and attitudes. Let us build critical thinkers, and think tanks. Let us Build the City of God: by producing competent intellectuals.

Contact:

gorwewm@gmail.com

gorwewm.blogspot.com

0659360357.