A council of livestock keepers in Ngorongoro district, together with the district leadership in Arusha Region has put up a fund for the payment of higher education for all qualified students in their community.

Press reports from Arusha have it that members of this council have decided to take matters concerning the education of the community children in their own hands by putting up a fund which will be used for educational matters.

Indeed, it is heartening to note that these pastoral communities now recognize the importance of education for their children, which demonstrates an admirable progressive attitude of mind on the part of this council of livestock keepers.

Let us not forget that it was not long ago when pastoral communities were being blamed for keeping their children at home, away from school so that the children could tend to their cattle.

Also, let us not forget that it was not long ago when we were pointing an accusatory finger at pastoral communities for dismissing the importance of education for their female children.

But this council of livestock keepers in Ngorongoro district has seen it proper to plan for the construction of two secondary schools in Olbalibali and Nainokanoka wards for girls and boys.

This indeed is to be lauded by all right thinking people. Probably the communities have seen that education will enable their children to better their lives wherever they go or whatever they choose to do later on in their lives.

Even if the children decide to carry on with their parents� profession of cattle-keeping, they will do so with a more informed mind. Education will have helped them to open their minds to even better ways of cattle rearing.

And indeed, some community children might want to seek a different way of life from the one their community offers. This is where their education will come in handy. School is vital, especially in the modern world.

Communication is important and as we keep on being reminded all the time, the world has become much smaller: in fact, it is often referred to as the global village. One therefore needs education in order to be able to live in this global village.

The modern world requires a completely different set of skills than those our fore fathers needed to live in their time. School is meant to equip the children with these skills or at least most of them.

Indeed, the vital role that education plays in the upbringing of children was further underlined by the Auxiliary Bishop of the Dar es Salaam Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, Methodius Kilaini, when he called on parents to invest in the education of their children in order to build a strong nation.

Auxiliary Bishop Kilaini made the call last weekend at a standard seven graduation ceremony at the Montfort Primary School in Dar es Salaam, stressing that an illiterate society cannot prosper.

Certainly, he got it right here. Illiterate people also tend to be ignorant and ignorance is definitely an enemy of development.

Rightly, Kilaini went on to call on parents and society at large to get involved in the upbringing of children. It is a fact that parents do greatly influence the behaviour of their children.

Indeed, the main job and duty of parents is to see to it that their children grow up correctly, with proper values and correct manners. We hear often that a badly behaved child is a disgrace to his/her parents.

In fact, if a child has wayward ways, it is the parents who are blamed, not his school teachers. If a child has not been instructed well at home, the teachers in school will also find it rather difficult to handle him.

It is a well-known fact that discipline should start at home and early enough so that a child is not in any doubt whatsoever as to what he can do and what he is not allowed to do.

And let us not forget it. Children are very clever in assessing situations. They know where they can be naughty and where they cannot because they have an idea of when they can get away with it and when they cannot.

Thus, it is important for parents to be firm and not to leave matters to the teachers. If parents can send well-behaved children to school, the teachers will be able to get on with the business of imparting knowledge to the children, without wasting time to deal with children who disrupt others by misbehaving in the classroom.

SOURCE: Guardian