October 1st-31st,

2015

News The
Flash
Open University of Tanzania

East African Academia deliberates

on the Ideal Graduate
T

he Inter-University Council of East Africa

(IUCEA) conducted its fourth AcademiaPublic-Private Partnership (APPP) Forum and
Exhibitions from 22nd to 23rd October 2015
in Entebbe, Uganda, where the main theme of
the event was Developing the Ideal Graduate
through Academia-Public-Private Partnership.

these graduates should in the first place be Ideal

Graduates themselves, for how can a weak professor
or tutor produce a strong graduate? Further to that, the
forum delegates looked at the whole education systems
in their respective countries from the primary school level
and suggested that there is no miracle for a University
to produce ideal graduates while the inputs they receive
(enrolled students) had shaky foundations right from the
beginning. Others went so far as to suggest that there is
no such a thing as Ideal Graduates, they simply do not
exist.

The Director of Communications and Marketing Dr.

Harieth Hellar Kihampa who represented OUT in
exhibiting the Universitys programmes and activities
was also able to capture some
proceedings of the Forum for
sharing with OUT staff.
The
forums
keynote
speakers, panelist and other
presenters
dwelled
their
discussions on an interesting
subject of Who is an Ideal
Graduate and What Does
the Development of an Ideal
Graduate Entail? A range
of different ideas and views
were raised and discussed
regarding what were believed
to be the characteristics of
and Ideal Graduate. Some
were of the opinion that an
ideal graduate is the one
who is knowledgeable and
has practical skills, is a team
player, demonstrates attention
to details, is dependable and
reliable.
Others suggested that an Ideal
Graduate must be highly
qualified, practical oriented,
self-driven, motivated, has the right attitude and has
the so called soft skills. It was also suggested that the
graduate must be professional, creative, innovative, able
to adapt to different working environments, competitive,
multi-disciplinary oriented, has good communication
skills, is willing to learn, works hard and focuses on the
right things, and above all, has a high level of integrity
and is a person of good character.

It was then concluded that the whole process of

producing ideal graduates involves having the right
inputs, that is, well prepared students from lower
educational levels; the right process, that is, the academic
programmes, qualified human resources, adequate
physical resources, required facilities, students support
systems and financial resources and then the right output
will eventually come out.

A lot was again discussed on what entails the

development of an Ideal Graduate. Some were of the
opinion that Academic staff who are expected to produce

All in all, the forum was a very good opportunity for self
reflections and evaluation. And for us OUT Staff, are we
Ideal Graduates in our respective lines of duties?

Baraza la OUT lawaaga Waheshimiwa Wabunge

waliomaliza muda wao kama Wajumbe wa Baraza
Baraza la Chuo Kikuu Kikuu Huria cha Tanzania
katika kikao chake cha 87 kilichofanyika
mwishoni mwa Septemba, limewaaga wajumbe
wake watatu ambao ni Waheshimiwa Wabunge
wa Bunge la Juamhuri ya Muungano wa
Tanzania waliomaliza muda wao.
Wajumbe walioagwa ni Mh. Dk. Henry
Daffa Shekifu, ambaye pia alikuwa Makamu
Mwenyekiti wa Baraza, Mh. Sylvester Mabumba
na Mh. Zainab Kawawa.
Katika hotuba yake, Mwenyekiti wa Baraza Prof.
Samwel Wangwe aliwapongeza Waheshimiwa
hao kwa michango yao mizuri na ya kujitolea
wakati wote walipokuwa wajumbe wa Baraza, na
kueleza kwamba walikuwa viungo muhimu sana
kati ya Chuo, Serikali na Wananchi. Mwenyekiti
wa Baraza aliwatunuku vyeti maalumu vya
kutambua utumishi wao ulio tukuka kwa
Chuo na pia walizawadiwa kompyuta mpakato
(laptop) kwa kila mmoja wao.
Waheshimiwa wajumbe kwa pamoja walitoa
shukurani zao za dhati kwanza kwa Bunge la
Tanzania kwa kuwateua kuwa wajumbe wa

Baraza la Chuo Kikuu Huria cha Tanzania, na

pia kwa Chuo kwa kuwapokea na kufanya nao
kazi kwa ushirikiano mkubwa.
Mh. Dk. Shekifu akitoa nasaha zake alieleza
kwamba yeye amekuwepo hapa OUT kuanzia
mwaka 1998 na kwamba naye pia ni mhitimu
wa Chuo hiki. Nimejifunza mambo mengi
sana kupitia OUT, kuanzia ICT Skills wakati
huo nikiwa Mkuu wa Mkoa wa Manyara.
Nashukuru sana kwa yote ambayo tumefanya
pamoja na ninawaombea mafanikio makubwa.
Msikate tamaa bali endeleeni kuwa wabunifu na
kuzitumia fursa zilizopo kukijenga Chuo chetu
alisema Dk. Shekifu.
Naye Makamu Mkuu wa Chuo Prof. Elifas
Bisanda aliwapongeza sana Waheshimiwa na
kuwatakia kila la heri kwa niaba ya jumuiya
ya Chuo Natoa shukurani zangu za dhati
kwa Waheshimiwa kwa kujitoa kwao na
kwa michango yao wakati wote walipokuwa
nasi. Nawasihi waendelee kujihesabu kama
sehemu muhimu ya familia ya OUT popote
watakapokuwa na kuendelea kuwa wawakilishi
wetu wazuri alisema Prof. Bisanda.

Mwenyekiti wa Baraza, Prof. Samwel Wangwe akimkabidhi zawadi Dk. Henry Daffa Shekifu wakati
wa hafla ya kuwaaga Wajumbe waliomaliza muda wao.

OUT members and other participants during the 8 Km Pink Charity Walk 2015 on Saturday 10th October, 2015

OUT Participates in a Charity Walk to

Promote Cancer Awareness
T
he Open University of Tanzania through
the Gender Unit (GUO) participated in
a charity walk to raise awareness on breast
cancer.
The walk, commonly known as the Pink Charity
Walk is annually organized by the Ocean Road Cancer
Institute (ORCI) to support fund raising for breast
cancer treatment in the country. Globally, October is
observed as the month of raising awareness on breast
cancer whereby several activities are conducted to
educate the society on different aspects of breast
cancer. This years event was held in the morning of
Saturday 10th, where the 8 Km charity walk started at
the Kunduchi Beach Hotel.
The main objective of the event was to promote an
inclusive culture of maximum participation and
addressing gender issues in organizations at different
levels. For OUT, participation in the event aimed to
expose GUO members to the realities of breast cancer
and being able to create awareness to OUT members
and the society in general as well as to create solidarity
with other social-healthy as stakeholders while
demonstrating OUTs commitment towards fighting
the cancer challenge in the country.

OUT participated in the event for the first time, under

the coordination of the new Gender Unit Coordinator,
Dr. Happy Magoha. Other OUT representatives were
Dr. Mary Kitula from FASS, Ms. Atuwene Mbelle
from FASS, Mr. Godefroid Mudaheranwa from
ICE and also Secretary of the Unit, Ms. Stella Shija
from FSTES, Ms. Safina Mohamed from DCM, Mr.
Salatiel Chaula from Library and Mr. David Abdallah
Malamgalla a Student representative. On behalf of
the OUT, the Unit was able to contribute one million
shillings for the ORCI of fundraising.
The walk attracted participants from different
institutions, including government units, nongovernmental
organizations,
faith-based
organizations and schools. Participants of the
event, including OUT staff, learnt and realized the
importance of early cancer detection in ensuring a
cancer free society, self-assessment procedures for
breast cancer, the roles of each member of the society
in fighting breast cancer and reducing its fatalities.
In order to widen the knowledge participants were
given an opportunity to start developing common
views towards some of the pertinent issues in the
society and encouraged to humbly work together to
address them from the institute to the country levels.

OUT establishes collaboration with the Millsaps College of USA

The Open University of Tanzania has
signed a Link Agreement with the
Millsaps College of North State, USA
to collaborate in pursuing mutual
interests in the fields of research,
development, education, training,
transfer of skills and dissemination of
knowledge.
The agreement was signed on
Monday 19th October at the Vice
Chancellors Office by the OUT
VC Prof. Elifas Bisanda under the
witness of Dr. Damas Ndumbaro,
Acting Dean, Faculty of Law and
will be signed by Prof. Robthert W.
Pearigen, President and CEO of the
Millsaps College.
Millsaps is a private liberal arts
college located in Jackson, in the
U.S. state of Mississippi. Founded
in 1890, the college is home to close
to 1,000 students. The colleges
writing-intensive core curriculum
requires each student to compile an
acceptable portfolio of written work
before completion of the second
year. Candidates for undergraduate

The OUT Vice Chancellor Prof. Elifas Bisanda exchanging documents with Prof.
Julian M. Murchison of the Department of Anthropology, Millsaps College, 19th
October, 2015.
degrees must also pass oral and
written comprehensive examinations
in their major fields of study. Among
other things, the agreement will

include students and staff exchange,

ICT and open and distance learning
programmes.

OUT Participates in the ICT in Education Exhibitions

The Open University of Tanzania was
among the educational institutions that
participated in the ICT in Education
Week that was organized by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
(MoEVT) from 28th September to 2nd October 2015 at the Julius Nyerere Conventional Centre in Dar es Salaam.
The main objective of the exhibitions was
to explore solutions for the use of e-content in primary schools to promote attainment of Early Grade Reading, Writing,
Math and Science Skills, a special project
to be supported by the Global Partnership for Education through a programme
called Literacy and Numeracy Education
Support (LANES) that will be coordinated by the MoEVT.
Participants of the exhibitions, including
OUT, presented different ideas and solutions that can be used to best provide
e-content to schools to enable them to enhance the methodologies used in assisting
the teaching and learning in and outside
the classroom. OUT was represented by
technical staff from the Institute of Educational and Management Technologies,
Ms. Regina Monyemangene, Ms. Maria
Augusti and Mr. Mwanuzi Babyegeya.

The OUT Vice Chancellor Prof. Elifas Bisanda speaking to the media in front
of the OUT booth during the ICT in Education Exhibitions, 1st October,
2015.

A class of more than twenty students sharing one computer for a lesson at Katoro Secondary School in Geita Region.

DIEMTs follow-up trip on the Retooling Project bears fruits

The Director of the Institute of Educational and Management Technologies Dr. Edephonce Nfuka visited some
Regions to make follow-up on the Ministry of Education
and Vocational Training (MoEVT) one year pilot project
on Inservice Training of Secondary School Science and
Mathematics Teachers in using ICT and other Technologies, popularly known as the Retooling Project.

what teachers learned from the training.

The project originated from the observed inadequacy in

knowledge and skills for teachers in some topics/subtopics of Mathematics and Science subjects. OUT was among
the high learning institutions selected to conduct the program in Arusha, Manyara, Dodoma, Shinyanga, Kigoma
and Geita Regions, where a total of 478 teachers have been
trained by OUT by April this year.

The Geita RC promised to assist schools to get ICT facilities, including computers labs for students, laptops for
teachers, projectors etc. She also promised to use existing
collaboration between Geita Region and a certain Region
in Denmark to propose an ICT project that can assist in
putting up necessary ICT infrastructure and related skills
in the involved schools.

The Ministry intends to determine whether the trained

teachers have mastered the content of the selected difficult
topics/sub-topics by conducting a classroom observation
to randomly selected Mathematics and Science classes. In
addition, the Ministry intends to determine whether those
teachers who attended the training share the resources
with their colleagues, and whether there is any difference
in their teaching performance after training as well as
identifying the challenges encountered in implementing

The OUT team assessed the achievements and implementation of the project among others. The preliminary assessment indicates that the use of ICT in teaching and learning at schools in Geita although could be beneficial, is still
limited by the lack of ICT facilities.

In Geita Region, Dr. Nfuka was accompanied by the Director the OUT Regional Centre Dr Nestory Ligembe to
visit the Geita Regional Commissioner (RC) Mrs. Fatma
Mwasa at her Office on 8th October 2015 and held discussions on implementation of the project.

Generally, the trip was of high importance because

through it, the Geita Region as well as the OUT Geita Regional Centre will benefit from ICT improvements.

The Geita RC Ms. Fatma Mwasa, (Centre), Director of Institute of Educational and Management Technologies Dr.
Edephonce Nfuka and the Director of Geita Regional Centre Dr. Nestory Ligembe (Left) at the Geita RCs office, 8th
October 2015.

On the role of Higher Education in attainment of the MDGs

he African Network for Internalization of Education (ANIE) organized its 6th Annual Conference in Dar es Salaam in collaboration with the
Open University of Tanzania. The high profile conference was conducted from 7th to 9th October at
the Giraffe Ocean View hotel, and gathered more
than 200 participants from about 30 countries.
ANIE is a pan-African network committed to the
advancement of high quality research, capacity
building, information sharing and exchange, transnational networking and cooperation and policy
advocacy on internationalization of education. The
network was established in 2008 and is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
The conference theme From MDGs to SDGs: The
contribution of International Higher Education
geared towards post Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and what will be the role of the newly
introduced Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
in African higher education. Several keynote addresses were delivered by prominent speakers, including the president of the Pan-African University
Council and the former OUT Vice Chancellor Prof.
Tolly Mbwette.

Organizers of the Conference intended to establish

feasible strategies through which internationalization of education can play a decisive role in achieving all the SDGs, directly as well as indirectly. The
outcome of the three day sessions was a list of ideas
on activities that need to be picked up by the internationalization community in the coming 15 years
of the post-2015 agenda in order to contribute to the
achievement of the SDGs.
The SDGs are a new, universal set of goals, targets
and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their developmental agendas
and policies in the next 15 years. They will follow
and expand on the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) which will expire at the end of this year.
Unlike the MDGs, the SDGs will not only focus on
low income countries but will also apply to middle and high income countries. Conversely, every
country will be expected to work towards achieving the SDGs. As agreed by the member states on
the draft set of 17 SDGs at a UN summit in New
York on 25th September 2015, they will become applicable beginning in January 2016.
For the benefit of our readers, the 17 SDGs are these;

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent
work for all.
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries.
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (taking note of agreements made by the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) forum).
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat
desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build
effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development.

Sports: IEMT Staff dethrone Students Team

EMT staff team marched to a slender 2-1 win

over the IEMT students team during a competitive friendly tussle football match held at the TTCL
grounds Kijitonyama on Saturday 10th October
2015.

The IEMT staff team ought to have scored more goals after getting a few good chances that were however thrown
away by strikers Bariki Kamala and Hendric Komba. The
two teams headed to the breather with the staff team leading two goals to one for students.

The friendly match saw the team brave the scorching midday sun at a lowly attended match despite great efforts to
encourage staff and students to attend. Worst, the designated cheering team did not turn up.

On resumption students coach reshuffled his parks by

sending in a goalkeeper and other two players to replace
those who looked out of form. There were various replacements in the staff team as it was a friendly match aiming at
every ones participation.

Two quick fire first half goals by Emmanuel Thomas and

energetic Godfrey Haonga were enough for the staff team
to wrap up a convincing victory over the students team.

The staff team would have won the match by big margin
but lack of prolonged practice prevailed upfront. Up to
the final whistle by well marked referee from Makongo
Secondary Mr. Cedric Haule, staff team was leading by
two goals against one of the students. Staff line up was:
Hamad Kassim, Nelson Godfrey, Oscar,/Bernard Mwakyuru, Mwanuzi Babyegeya, Nyoni, Exvodius Albert, Msami Kawiche, Alberto Benitez, Hendric Komba, Emmanuel
Thomas, Bariki Kamala and Godfrey Haonga,

The staff team deployed a brilliant display of attacking

football throughout the game especially in the first half
when they scored the brace to frustrate the students team.
It was a perfect and impressive combination between the
staff team that lead Kamala to be brought down some 22
metres from the students goalmouth. Being the 13th Minute Emmanuel Thomas took the free kick to score the first
goal which went straight leaving the goalkeeper falling
apart helplessly.

Speaking during the closing, the IEMT Acting Director Mr. Stephen Lukindo commended the players and
said this was the start of various entertainment activities
scheduled in the Institute which aimed to bring together
staff and students towards a bilateral relationship and
eventfully maintaining their physical fitness . The Acting
Director also commended the OUT Sports Coach Consolata Mwendabantu for the great support and involvement
she rendered during the preparations of this match.

Barely eight minutes later staff were on the rampage again

scoring the second goal by Godfrey Haonga who took a
free kick some 46 metres from the students goal. He punished the goalkeeper with a rasping shot that ricocheted
inside the goal not knowing that the days business was
that much over.

The winning team was presented by a trophy that was received by the teams captain Hendric Komba on behalf of
the team, who celebrated with ululations. There were also
cash prices to those who scored goals, Emmanuel Thomas,
Godfrey Haonga and Student Ismail Hatib received Tshs.
Ten thousand each for the work well done. The overall
player who demonstrated high discipline throughout the
game, Zahoro Salum (Mpemba) from the students team,
also received the same amount. The function was officially
closed at 12.15 in the afternoon.

The student team merely led by youngsters responded

impressively after the two goals playing with confidence
showing a composed passing rhythm just to find themselves failing to contain the offside trick.
In the 25th Minute, student captain Hatibu Isamail connected a well coordinated pass that left staff goalkeeper
Hamad Kassim on the wrong foot to score a very excellent
goal.

The IEMT staff team (in green jersey) and the Students team (in yellow) posing for a group photo
before the match.
7