DAR ES SALAAM, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-nine out of 105 students at the Tanzanian state-run University of Dar es Salaam were on Monday given awards after winning the 1st teaching skills competition.
The competition, co-organized by the School of Education (SoED) of the University of Dar es Salaam and the Sino-Africa Joint Center for Educational Research (SA-JoCER), was aimed at enabling student teachers to showcase their skills, competencies and creativity.
Madaha Ndaki, a third-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education, said he was glad to win in the Chinese language teaching skills category.
"My winning in this category has motivated me to be competent in teaching the Chinese language to Tanzanians after completion of my studies because the Chinese language is a key to opening doors of employment to Chinese companies operating in Tanzania," said Ndaki.
Eugenia Kafanabo, dean of SoED, said the competition targeted student teachers who are in their second and third year of study. "The teaching skills competition was aimed to raise awareness of the importance of practice and improving the teaching styles."
The competition involved 10 different subjects that were selected from secondary school syllabuses, including biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, civics, history, geography, Kiswahili, English and Chinese language subjects, Kafanabo said at the Confucius Institute Hall at the University of Dar es Salaam.
The competition might be an entry point to bring all the relevant stakeholders together as an alliance to contribute to the quality of teacher education, said Eilleen Xu, coordinator of the SA-JoCER, co-established by the University of Dar es Salaam and the Zhejiang Normal University of China.
Venance Manori, director of basic education in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, commended the University of Dar es Salaam and the Zhejiang Normal University of China for organizing the competition, saying the competition will improve teaching skills for Tanzanian teachers.
