By Our Correspondent
ARUSHA: The future of education will not be shaped by technology alone, but by teachers who understand how to use it to improve the way learners are taught, assessed and supported.
This is the message emerging from a four-day training on the ICT Competency Standards for Teachers in Tanzania (ICT-CSTT) for teachers from Arusha City Council (Arusha CC) and Arusha District Council (Arusha DC), where participants are being challenged to look beyond traditional approaches and prepare for an increasingly digital education environment.
The training is being conducted through collaboration between the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE), and the Prime Minister’s Office through TAMISEMI.
For Watson Gibson Mtewele, a Curriculum Developer for Computer Science at TIE, the purpose of such training goes beyond teaching teachers how to use individual digital applications.
He said it was about helping teachers understand how technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), can be used purposefully to strengthen teaching, learning and assessment.
Mr Mtewele said digital assessment tools such as Kahoot could make assessment more interactive and enable teachers to provide learners with immediate feedback.
“When teachers use these tools as assessment instruments, they can simplify teaching and learning, particularly by enabling learners to receive immediate feedback during assessment,” he said.
He explained that the value of such tools lies in the information they give teachers about learners’ understanding.
Instead of waiting until the end of a topic, term or examination period to discover that learners have struggled with a particular concept, a teacher can use assessment information to identify learning gaps earlier and provide additional support.
FROM ASSESSMENT TO ACTION
Mr Mtewele said teachers attending the training had also been introduced to Google Forms, enabling them to prepare questions, administer assessments, receive learners’ responses and follow up on their performance.
The information generated through such assessments, he said, can also help teachers communicate learners’ progress appropriately with parents and strengthen cooperation between schools and families.
This changes the role of assessment from simply recording marks to generating information that can guide teaching decisions.
A teacher can see what learners have understood, identify areas of difficulty and determine whether to reteach a concept, provide additional exercises or move forward with the lesson.
For teachers, therefore, digital competence can translate into more informed teaching, quicker feedback and better opportunities to support learners according to their needs.
THE TEACHER MUST KEEP LEARNING
But Mr Mtewele said technology alone would not transform education.
He challenged teachers to change their mindset and embrace continuous professional learning, particularly when many educational resources and learning opportunities are increasingly available online.
He warned that teachers who deliberately refuse to acquire new skills risk becoming less prepared for the changing learning environment.
“The learner of the coming years will not necessarily need the same teaching approaches that have been used in the past. Teachers must therefore be ready to change as the education environment changes,” he said.
He stressed that the growing use of AI and digital technologies should not be interpreted as replacing teachers.
Rather, he said, technology should strengthen the teacher’s ability to prepare lessons, assess learners, provide feedback, access educational resources and make informed decisions about instruction.
Teachers who embrace continuous learning, he said, stand to benefit from wider access to educational resources, improved digital confidence, more engaging assessment approaches and the ability to respond more quickly to learners’ needs.
Those who refuse to adapt, however, risk relying on approaches that may increasingly fail to respond to the changing needs of learners and the demands of the education system.
WHY THE TRAINING MATTERS
The training comes at a time when Tanzania is placing increasing emphasis on digital transformation in education.
The Education and Training Policy of 2014, 2023 Edition, together with the National Digital Education Strategy and the National Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence in Education, provides a policy and strategic direction for the growing role of technology in education. The Ministry of Education has officially published these documents alongside the ICT Competency Standards for Teachers in Tanzania.
The National Digital Education Strategy specifically identifies areas such as ICT integration in the curriculum, digital content, digital assessment and emerging technologies as requiring strengthened ICT competencies among teachers.
This places teachers at the centre of Tanzania’s digital education transformation.
For UNESCO and its Government partners, strengthening teachers’ capacity is therefore not simply about introducing technology into schools.
It is about ensuring that teachers have the knowledge and confidence to use technology responsibly and meaningfully to improve learning outcomes.
LOOKING TOWARDS VISION 2050
The importance of that preparation becomes even clearer when viewed against Tanzania Development Vision 2050, which places human development, science and technology and digital transformation among the drivers of the country’s long-term development.
The ICT Competency Standards for Teachers link teacher digital competence directly with the ambitions of Vision 2050, including the goal of having Tanzanians who are competent and confident creators and users of digital products and services.
For that vision to become a reality, digital competence cannot begin with learners alone.
It must begin with the people who guide their learning.
A teacher who continues to learn will be better positioned to guide learners through a world in which information, technology and AI are changing rapidly.
A teacher who refuses to learn risks facing tomorrow’s classroom with yesterday’s tools.
That, Mr Mtewele said, is why teachers should view digital training not as an additional burden, but as an investment in their profession and in the future of the learners they teach.
The challenge, therefore, is not whether technology will enter education.
It already has.
The more important question is whether teachers will be ready to use it wisely, responsibly and effectively.
For Tanzania’s journey towards 2050, the answer may begin with something as simple as a teacher deciding to learn one new digital skill today.
0 Comments