Wizara ya Elimu na Mafunzo ya ufundi imetoa Sera ya Elimu na Mafunzo 2014. BOFYA HAPA ILI UISOME
SAMWEL A MWASAMAJENGO
Sunday, 1 March 2015
Friday, 27 February 2015
RASIMU YA SERA YA ELIMU YAPENDEKEZA ELIMU YA MSINGI IWE MIAKA 10
ELIMU-MSINGI KWA MIAKA 10
Rasimu ya sera mpya ya elimu na mafunzo inayojadiliwa sasa na wadau inapendekeza kuunganishwa kwa elimu ya msingi na sekondari ya kawaida ya sasa ili kuunda elimu msingi itakayotolewa kwa miaka 10; kuanzia mwaka 2018. Hebu soma hapa kwa maelezo zaidi: http://bit.ly/17JzRLa
Rasimu hiyo ya sera inapendekeza kwamba wanafunzi watakaofaulu elimu-msingi, ndio watapata fursa kusoma elimu ya sekondari; ambayo ni sawa na kidato cha tano na sita; au ufundi stadi.
Miaka 5 kuanzia sasa ni muda unaotosha kufanya maandalizi sahihi. Kwa bahati mbaya-uzoefu unaonesha kuwa nchi yetu huwa inaleta mabadiliko katika mfumo wa elimu bila maandalizi ya kutosha. Kwa mfano, mipango kama MMEM na MMES-na shule za sekondari za kata zilianzishwa bila maandalizi ya kutosha kwa upande wa walimu, vitabu, mfumo, nk. Matokeo yake-hali ya elimu nchini inazidi kuyumba japo shule zipo nyingi na watoto wengi zaidi wako shule.
Hili la kuleta elimu-msingi ni jambo kubwa sana. Lina mabadiliko mengi ya kimfumo, kimuundo, mitaala na ujengaji uwezo kwa walimu. Lisipotazamwa kwa makini linaweza kuyumbisha zaidi elimu yetu. Kwa kuwa wabunge wanatakiwa kujadili suala hili hivi karibuni; ni muhimu kwanza waulize na kujiridhisha maandalizi ambayo serikali inafikiria kuyafanya na kwa wakati gani yatakayoweza kubeba mabadiliko haya makubwa.
Mjadala usiende kwa haraka kuangalia kwamba miaka 10 hiyo ni sahihi-au hapana. Tukienda huko tutajikita kwenye maudhui ya mfumo huo. Kumbe mjadala unatakiwa kwanza kuangalia uwezo wa nchi kutekeleza mfumo huo mpya. Yaani mpangilio wa kitaasisi, ukaguzi, uandaaji wa walimu, uwezeshaji wa walimu, bajeti ya elimu, nk. Hili la bajeti ni muhimu sana kwa kuwa watoto wote wanaoanza shule za msingi wataenda mpaka sekondari. Ni nini kinachoifanya serikali iamini kuwa hili linawezekana-hasa ukiangalia mazingira ya sasa kwamba shule zinakosa mahitaji muhimu? Kwa nini serikali isipimwe kwa kuonesha uwezo kwanza wa kusimamia na kugharamia elimu vizuri kwa utaratibu uliopo (ambapo matumaini yanazidi kufifia); angalau kwa miaka 3 ijayo; kabla ya kuleta kitu kipya? Katika kipindi hiki kabla ya kuanzishwa kwa mfumo huo-tunataka kuona dalili zipi zitakazotuaminisha kwa tutafanikiwa?
Haya ni baadhi ya maswali tu. Bila shaka wadau wa elimu mtakuwa na maoni na maswali kadhaa kuhusu suala hili. Tafadhali mjulishe mbunge wako kama utakuwa na maoni kuhusu suala hili. Hivi karibuni tutawawekea hapa nakala ya rasimu hiyo ili muweze kutoa maoni kwenye maeneo mengine pia. Sote tuna nia njema ya kuona elimu yetu inaleta mafanikio kijamii, kiuchumi na mambo mengine bora.
Rasimu ya sera mpya ya elimu na mafunzo inayojadiliwa sasa na wadau inapendekeza kuunganishwa kwa elimu ya msingi na sekondari ya kawaida ya sasa ili kuunda elimu msingi itakayotolewa kwa miaka 10; kuanzia mwaka 2018. Hebu soma hapa kwa maelezo zaidi: http://bit.ly/17JzRLa
Rasimu hiyo ya sera inapendekeza kwamba wanafunzi watakaofaulu elimu-msingi, ndio watapata fursa kusoma elimu ya sekondari; ambayo ni sawa na kidato cha tano na sita; au ufundi stadi.
Miaka 5 kuanzia sasa ni muda unaotosha kufanya maandalizi sahihi. Kwa bahati mbaya-uzoefu unaonesha kuwa nchi yetu huwa inaleta mabadiliko katika mfumo wa elimu bila maandalizi ya kutosha. Kwa mfano, mipango kama MMEM na MMES-na shule za sekondari za kata zilianzishwa bila maandalizi ya kutosha kwa upande wa walimu, vitabu, mfumo, nk. Matokeo yake-hali ya elimu nchini inazidi kuyumba japo shule zipo nyingi na watoto wengi zaidi wako shule.
Hili la kuleta elimu-msingi ni jambo kubwa sana. Lina mabadiliko mengi ya kimfumo, kimuundo, mitaala na ujengaji uwezo kwa walimu. Lisipotazamwa kwa makini linaweza kuyumbisha zaidi elimu yetu. Kwa kuwa wabunge wanatakiwa kujadili suala hili hivi karibuni; ni muhimu kwanza waulize na kujiridhisha maandalizi ambayo serikali inafikiria kuyafanya na kwa wakati gani yatakayoweza kubeba mabadiliko haya makubwa.
Mjadala usiende kwa haraka kuangalia kwamba miaka 10 hiyo ni sahihi-au hapana. Tukienda huko tutajikita kwenye maudhui ya mfumo huo. Kumbe mjadala unatakiwa kwanza kuangalia uwezo wa nchi kutekeleza mfumo huo mpya. Yaani mpangilio wa kitaasisi, ukaguzi, uandaaji wa walimu, uwezeshaji wa walimu, bajeti ya elimu, nk. Hili la bajeti ni muhimu sana kwa kuwa watoto wote wanaoanza shule za msingi wataenda mpaka sekondari. Ni nini kinachoifanya serikali iamini kuwa hili linawezekana-hasa ukiangalia mazingira ya sasa kwamba shule zinakosa mahitaji muhimu? Kwa nini serikali isipimwe kwa kuonesha uwezo kwanza wa kusimamia na kugharamia elimu vizuri kwa utaratibu uliopo (ambapo matumaini yanazidi kufifia); angalau kwa miaka 3 ijayo; kabla ya kuleta kitu kipya? Katika kipindi hiki kabla ya kuanzishwa kwa mfumo huo-tunataka kuona dalili zipi zitakazotuaminisha kwa tutafanikiwa?
Haya ni baadhi ya maswali tu. Bila shaka wadau wa elimu mtakuwa na maoni na maswali kadhaa kuhusu suala hili. Tafadhali mjulishe mbunge wako kama utakuwa na maoni kuhusu suala hili. Hivi karibuni tutawawekea hapa nakala ya rasimu hiyo ili muweze kutoa maoni kwenye maeneo mengine pia. Sote tuna nia njema ya kuona elimu yetu inaleta mafanikio kijamii, kiuchumi na mambo mengine bora.
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Saturday, 15 March 2014
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
The Future of Secondary Education in Tanzania Kiswahili or English?
The question of whether to use Kiswahili or English as the language
medium of educational instruction in Tanzania has been long debated.
Following the guidance set down by Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere himself,
Tanzania has pursued a middle path, striving for universal,
Kiswahili-language primary schooling while offering an increasingly
growing segment of the population with English-language secondary and
tertiary education. Many argue, however, that it is time for a change.
Those who favor English language instruction at every educational level, point to the broader East African community’s acceptance of English-language education, with even formerly Francophone Rwanda joining the ranks of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi. Those who wish to see even Tanzania’s primary schools one day switch to English-language instruction imagine that such a move will help to usher Tanzania into the global marketplace, competing with the likes of India and China with its own skilled, English-language workforce. These proponents of English-language education have their eyes firmly fixed on cities like Dar-es-Salaam and Arusha, cities flush with money and personnel from the English-language dominated Tourism and Aid industries. To chart the country’s development path along these lines, however, is as naïve to the realities of economic development as it is disrespectful to the legacy of Kiswahili in its continued shaping of Tanzanian civil society.
From the colonial era through the end of the twentieth century, secondary schools remained essentially elite institutions, training Tanzania’s primary school teachers and government workforce. Tanzania’s majority rural population entered agricultural and pastoral work with only primary school education and many without even that. Primary education was designed to provide the foundations for civil society, teaching all Tanzanians their history, civic rights and responsibilities, a basic understanding of the tools of mathematics and science, the national language of Kiswahili, and the beginnings of English to communicate in an international context. In some of these goals, Tanzanian primary schools have succeeded; in others, they have failed. Among most Standard 7 (final year of primary school) leavers who qualify for secondary school and begin Form 1, most have a high level mastery of Kiswahili and a keen understanding of their government and its history. However, the overwhelming majority arrive at secondary school with abominably poor mathematics skills, virtually no understanding of the methods and processes of scientific investigation and little more than a handful of English words and phrases.
In this twenty-first century, secondary schools are no longer the elite institutions they once were. Rapid school expansion is quickly closing in on President Kikwete’s promise to put a secondary school in every ward in the country. School enrollments are double what they were several years ago. Secondary schools are no longer simply training the government and business leaders of the big cities. They are training farmers, herders, craftworkers, and small-scale entrepreneurs who will continue to live and work in the communities where they were educated.
The average secondary school student who will continue to live and work in the village can nevertheless potentially get a great deal out of a secondary education. The tools of mathematics and science, if properly used, can help farmers, herders and craftworkers to maximize their yields, profits and savings. Rather than simply copying the economic models around them, critical thinkers can evaluate their surroundings empirically, can test alternatives, and can evaluate the results to their own benefit and to the benefits of their families, friends and neighbors. Surely, this is the meaning of “Education for Self-Reliance,” as Mwalimu Nyerere propounded, the ability to use local resources to create sustainable, effective, income-generating projects. This requires no hand-outs from foreign NGOs, no expensive foreign experts in brand new Land Cruisers, and certainly does not require fluency in English. It requires only the critical thinking skills and collaborative efforts of an educated workforce. While secondary schools are capable of this task, they fail at it miserably, in every region, district and ward in the country.
Sitting in Dar, Arusha or even some of the middle-sized towns such as Dodoma, Morogoro or Njombe, the state of secondary education still seems relatively positive. Qualified teachers are widely available (if still often overworked) and resources are plentiful (if not fully accessible by every student). It is in the small towns and villages that the disgraceful state of secondary education and the absurdity of mandating English-language instruction becomes clear. In the larger of the outlying village secondary schools, those schools in district or ward capitals yet still far from the tarmac roads are demonstrably worse now than they were even 3 years ago. For the past 3 years, these schools have watched their enrollments nearly double while their workforce has been cut in half. Their senior teachers have been sent off to become headmasters at the newly built schools even further off the beaten path. These schools used to be able to teach all their periods or were at least just a few teachers shy of being able to achieve that goal. Now there are not even enough teachers to have one per subject for student enrollments exceeding 400 and 500 students. Now, these teachers can do little more than keep discipline and order and the only students who manage to succeed are the ones who mostly teach themselves.
The situation of few qualified teachers, high student enrollments and minimal school resources would be equally challenging in any part of the world. Indeed, this is not a problem limited to Tanzania. Moreover, there are plenty of other countries with fewer teaching facilities and higher student to teacher ratios. Mandating English-language instruction under these conditions however has made an already difficult and challenging environment entirely unable to fulfill even its most basic mandate. Even as police and armed security guards use excessive force to extract taxes from reluctant villagers for new school construction, there are still not enough teachers for minimal staffing needs. Quality standards for both teachers and students have plummeted. Secondary school teachers need only be form 6 leavers with a 3-week teacher training course. Students need no longer make any pretence of passing classes to advance through the ranks. After passing their primary school Standard 7 exam, a student can enter Form 1, fail every class, continue on to Form 2, fail every class, fail the national exam, continue on to Form 3, fail every class, continue on to Form 4, fail every class, fail the national exam and still qualify as a Form 4 leaver. As long as a student pays their fees and does not get pregnant, mere persistence with no academic effort can secure a secondary school degree in Tanzania today. This is shameful and a national embarrassment. Moreover, it does not need to be this way.
While the desire to increase secondary school access for Tanzanian students is an admirable one, the quality of those schools cannot be allowed to suffer anymore in the process. On top of the under-supplied schools, under-trained teachers and under-prepared students, there is the issue of English-language instruction. Even with the best available, thoroughly English-language fluent teachers, the expectation that primary school students with little English experience should enter secondary school and take instruction for all subjects in English is unreasonable. Educational research has long shown that students’ skills and capacities are varied in any classroom setting. An aptitude for foreign languages, while a valuable skill in itself, is not so important as to stake the entire secondary educational system on its mastery. All of those students who might otherwise excel in mathematics, the natural and social sciences or even the non-English humanities but do not have a particular aptitude for foreign languages are being cheated out of an education. Instead of graduating critical thinkers, well-prepared citizens and workers who may or may not perform well in English, Tanzania is producing a generation of students who have spent countless hours memorizing words and phrases they do not understand taught to them by teachers with little understanding themselves. While the current system would still largely fail were it staffed with thoroughly fluent English-language teachers, the grim reality is that English fluency even among secondary school teachers is poor indeed. Perhaps the best illustration of this comes from the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) itself.
Every year NECTA issues examinations for Form 2 and Form 4 full of awkward and poorly constructed English sentences, low-quality representational drawings (especially problematic in the Biology exam), and questions that contain a disturbing range of over-simplified generalizations, petty definitions, excessively difficult arcana, and downright inaccuracies. That poorly-prepared students should have to take such poor-quality tests only adds insult to injury. While the English-language medium is not the sole cause of NECTA’s poor performance in the creation of its O-Level examinations, it is a strong contributing factor. The lack of English-fluency of most of the relevant stakeholders (students, their parents and teachers) keeps them from recognizing how bad these tests actually are. By hiding under the cover of the English language, the NECTA test writers escape criticism and accountability for their abysmal performance year after year. If these tests were written in Kiswahili, poorly worded or inaccurate questions would be noticed everywhere and NECTA would be held accountable. As is, there is no opportunity for democratic participation in the process. Either Tanzania needs to hire outside contractors who can actually command the English language to write and grade these tests or else the entire enterprise needs to be abandoned and replaced with Kiswahili-language material.
With so few secondary and tertiary educational materials written in Kiswahili, how can the educational system possibly make this change? This question, though often posed, misses an important alternative. It is quite possible to use foreign language materials in a native-language educational environment. Take for instance Sweden, whose population and language are much smaller than Tanzania’s by comparison. While Sweden has been able to incorporate foreign language study into its curriculum from early primary education onwards, Swedish is used as the medium of instruction for all other subjects from nursery school through to university. There is no reason why Tanzanian students could not use English (or even French, German or Arabic) books in secondary and tertiary education while still allowing teachers to teach in Kiswahili and students to take tests in Kiswahili. Achieving a “reading-level” knowledge of English can still be accomplished while allowing students to learn and express themselves in Kiswahili – a national language that is already the second or even third language learned for many students! As Tanzania looks ahead to the future of its secondary educational system, the time is ripe to ask, “Do we want to create the best Kiswahili educational system in the world, or one of the worst in the English-speaking world?” Elimu gani ni haki ya wananchi wote?
As Nyerere himself was at pains to demonstrate throughout his life, Kiswahili has the ability to express concepts every bit as poetically or precisely as found in any European language. Unlike virtually every one of its neighboring countries, Tanzania has been able to unite numerous and disparate religious and ethnic groups under one national identity and one national language. To discount and dismiss this legacy in favor of an English-language identity will only undo the gains made by the generation that brought independence and further fracture the country along class lines. Tanzania has the chance to become the international center of a vibrant Kiswahili language and culture, spreading its influence throughout East Africa. However, if Tanzania turns away from its own heritage, why should any other country turn towards Tanzania? The choice is either to lead from a position of strength and experience or to follow from a position of weakness. Mpango gani ni haki ya wananchi wote?
Those who favor English language instruction at every educational level, point to the broader East African community’s acceptance of English-language education, with even formerly Francophone Rwanda joining the ranks of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi. Those who wish to see even Tanzania’s primary schools one day switch to English-language instruction imagine that such a move will help to usher Tanzania into the global marketplace, competing with the likes of India and China with its own skilled, English-language workforce. These proponents of English-language education have their eyes firmly fixed on cities like Dar-es-Salaam and Arusha, cities flush with money and personnel from the English-language dominated Tourism and Aid industries. To chart the country’s development path along these lines, however, is as naïve to the realities of economic development as it is disrespectful to the legacy of Kiswahili in its continued shaping of Tanzanian civil society.
From the colonial era through the end of the twentieth century, secondary schools remained essentially elite institutions, training Tanzania’s primary school teachers and government workforce. Tanzania’s majority rural population entered agricultural and pastoral work with only primary school education and many without even that. Primary education was designed to provide the foundations for civil society, teaching all Tanzanians their history, civic rights and responsibilities, a basic understanding of the tools of mathematics and science, the national language of Kiswahili, and the beginnings of English to communicate in an international context. In some of these goals, Tanzanian primary schools have succeeded; in others, they have failed. Among most Standard 7 (final year of primary school) leavers who qualify for secondary school and begin Form 1, most have a high level mastery of Kiswahili and a keen understanding of their government and its history. However, the overwhelming majority arrive at secondary school with abominably poor mathematics skills, virtually no understanding of the methods and processes of scientific investigation and little more than a handful of English words and phrases.
In this twenty-first century, secondary schools are no longer the elite institutions they once were. Rapid school expansion is quickly closing in on President Kikwete’s promise to put a secondary school in every ward in the country. School enrollments are double what they were several years ago. Secondary schools are no longer simply training the government and business leaders of the big cities. They are training farmers, herders, craftworkers, and small-scale entrepreneurs who will continue to live and work in the communities where they were educated.
The average secondary school student who will continue to live and work in the village can nevertheless potentially get a great deal out of a secondary education. The tools of mathematics and science, if properly used, can help farmers, herders and craftworkers to maximize their yields, profits and savings. Rather than simply copying the economic models around them, critical thinkers can evaluate their surroundings empirically, can test alternatives, and can evaluate the results to their own benefit and to the benefits of their families, friends and neighbors. Surely, this is the meaning of “Education for Self-Reliance,” as Mwalimu Nyerere propounded, the ability to use local resources to create sustainable, effective, income-generating projects. This requires no hand-outs from foreign NGOs, no expensive foreign experts in brand new Land Cruisers, and certainly does not require fluency in English. It requires only the critical thinking skills and collaborative efforts of an educated workforce. While secondary schools are capable of this task, they fail at it miserably, in every region, district and ward in the country.
Sitting in Dar, Arusha or even some of the middle-sized towns such as Dodoma, Morogoro or Njombe, the state of secondary education still seems relatively positive. Qualified teachers are widely available (if still often overworked) and resources are plentiful (if not fully accessible by every student). It is in the small towns and villages that the disgraceful state of secondary education and the absurdity of mandating English-language instruction becomes clear. In the larger of the outlying village secondary schools, those schools in district or ward capitals yet still far from the tarmac roads are demonstrably worse now than they were even 3 years ago. For the past 3 years, these schools have watched their enrollments nearly double while their workforce has been cut in half. Their senior teachers have been sent off to become headmasters at the newly built schools even further off the beaten path. These schools used to be able to teach all their periods or were at least just a few teachers shy of being able to achieve that goal. Now there are not even enough teachers to have one per subject for student enrollments exceeding 400 and 500 students. Now, these teachers can do little more than keep discipline and order and the only students who manage to succeed are the ones who mostly teach themselves.
The situation of few qualified teachers, high student enrollments and minimal school resources would be equally challenging in any part of the world. Indeed, this is not a problem limited to Tanzania. Moreover, there are plenty of other countries with fewer teaching facilities and higher student to teacher ratios. Mandating English-language instruction under these conditions however has made an already difficult and challenging environment entirely unable to fulfill even its most basic mandate. Even as police and armed security guards use excessive force to extract taxes from reluctant villagers for new school construction, there are still not enough teachers for minimal staffing needs. Quality standards for both teachers and students have plummeted. Secondary school teachers need only be form 6 leavers with a 3-week teacher training course. Students need no longer make any pretence of passing classes to advance through the ranks. After passing their primary school Standard 7 exam, a student can enter Form 1, fail every class, continue on to Form 2, fail every class, fail the national exam, continue on to Form 3, fail every class, continue on to Form 4, fail every class, fail the national exam and still qualify as a Form 4 leaver. As long as a student pays their fees and does not get pregnant, mere persistence with no academic effort can secure a secondary school degree in Tanzania today. This is shameful and a national embarrassment. Moreover, it does not need to be this way.
While the desire to increase secondary school access for Tanzanian students is an admirable one, the quality of those schools cannot be allowed to suffer anymore in the process. On top of the under-supplied schools, under-trained teachers and under-prepared students, there is the issue of English-language instruction. Even with the best available, thoroughly English-language fluent teachers, the expectation that primary school students with little English experience should enter secondary school and take instruction for all subjects in English is unreasonable. Educational research has long shown that students’ skills and capacities are varied in any classroom setting. An aptitude for foreign languages, while a valuable skill in itself, is not so important as to stake the entire secondary educational system on its mastery. All of those students who might otherwise excel in mathematics, the natural and social sciences or even the non-English humanities but do not have a particular aptitude for foreign languages are being cheated out of an education. Instead of graduating critical thinkers, well-prepared citizens and workers who may or may not perform well in English, Tanzania is producing a generation of students who have spent countless hours memorizing words and phrases they do not understand taught to them by teachers with little understanding themselves. While the current system would still largely fail were it staffed with thoroughly fluent English-language teachers, the grim reality is that English fluency even among secondary school teachers is poor indeed. Perhaps the best illustration of this comes from the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) itself.
Every year NECTA issues examinations for Form 2 and Form 4 full of awkward and poorly constructed English sentences, low-quality representational drawings (especially problematic in the Biology exam), and questions that contain a disturbing range of over-simplified generalizations, petty definitions, excessively difficult arcana, and downright inaccuracies. That poorly-prepared students should have to take such poor-quality tests only adds insult to injury. While the English-language medium is not the sole cause of NECTA’s poor performance in the creation of its O-Level examinations, it is a strong contributing factor. The lack of English-fluency of most of the relevant stakeholders (students, their parents and teachers) keeps them from recognizing how bad these tests actually are. By hiding under the cover of the English language, the NECTA test writers escape criticism and accountability for their abysmal performance year after year. If these tests were written in Kiswahili, poorly worded or inaccurate questions would be noticed everywhere and NECTA would be held accountable. As is, there is no opportunity for democratic participation in the process. Either Tanzania needs to hire outside contractors who can actually command the English language to write and grade these tests or else the entire enterprise needs to be abandoned and replaced with Kiswahili-language material.
With so few secondary and tertiary educational materials written in Kiswahili, how can the educational system possibly make this change? This question, though often posed, misses an important alternative. It is quite possible to use foreign language materials in a native-language educational environment. Take for instance Sweden, whose population and language are much smaller than Tanzania’s by comparison. While Sweden has been able to incorporate foreign language study into its curriculum from early primary education onwards, Swedish is used as the medium of instruction for all other subjects from nursery school through to university. There is no reason why Tanzanian students could not use English (or even French, German or Arabic) books in secondary and tertiary education while still allowing teachers to teach in Kiswahili and students to take tests in Kiswahili. Achieving a “reading-level” knowledge of English can still be accomplished while allowing students to learn and express themselves in Kiswahili – a national language that is already the second or even third language learned for many students! As Tanzania looks ahead to the future of its secondary educational system, the time is ripe to ask, “Do we want to create the best Kiswahili educational system in the world, or one of the worst in the English-speaking world?” Elimu gani ni haki ya wananchi wote?
As Nyerere himself was at pains to demonstrate throughout his life, Kiswahili has the ability to express concepts every bit as poetically or precisely as found in any European language. Unlike virtually every one of its neighboring countries, Tanzania has been able to unite numerous and disparate religious and ethnic groups under one national identity and one national language. To discount and dismiss this legacy in favor of an English-language identity will only undo the gains made by the generation that brought independence and further fracture the country along class lines. Tanzania has the chance to become the international center of a vibrant Kiswahili language and culture, spreading its influence throughout East Africa. However, if Tanzania turns away from its own heritage, why should any other country turn towards Tanzania? The choice is either to lead from a position of strength and experience or to follow from a position of weakness. Mpango gani ni haki ya wananchi wote?
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
OBSERVER IN FRINGE TV SHOW WHO CALLED SEPTEMBER
Background Information
September is a scientist from a possible future in the 2600s. He is one of a species that is an evolutionary descendant of humans called "Observers", a term coined by Fringe Division. The Observers' goal is to use time travel to study key moments in time leading up to their evolution, and ensure that certain events played out as they wished. This study is a form of reconnaissance for an invasion of past-Earth, which took place in 2015.At the time of his discovery, the team was unaware that there were many of these scientists, as he is nearly indistinguishable in appearance from his contemporaries. As a result, they tended to call him "The Observer". The name "September" is merely a codename, similar to the codenames given to all of the other scientists. Each codename refers to a month in the year.
Altering The Timeline
September believed he was merely fulfilling his duties as a scientist when he went to Walternate's Harvard Lab in 1985. It was here that he expected to witness the man discover the cure for Peter Bishop, who was dying. Instead, however, September accidentally distracted Walternate. Walternate turned to look at his unexpected visitor and missed the indicator color-change in the compound that signaled the cure had been successfully created. By the time September left, the indicator had vanished and Walternate missed the chance to cure his son.September expressed his concerns to his fellow Observers. They acknowledged that September's actions would be dangerous. He had inadvertently changed the outcome of the timeline. Peter Bishop, who should have lived, would now die. This could not be because even one life could dramatically alter the timeline.
Walter Bishop of the Primary Universe crossed over to administer the cure for Peter himself. He took Peter with him back to the Primary Universe. However, tragedy struck and the two plummeted through the ice on Reiden Lake immediately after crossing universes. September saved both of them from drowning. He explained to Walter that one day, he would need a favor from him and then disappeared, and gave him a brief demonstration of his ability to read minds. Witnessing the strong bonds of love between a father and son, Walternate worked tirelessly to save his dying son and Walter crossed universes to save the same boy, stirred something in September. He came to the realization that his own son was important to him, a trait Observers had abandoned long ago. He seemingly came to this conclusion while he was in the car with Walter. Vocalizing his thoughts, he said, "The boy is important. He has to live." He was referring to his own son, but Walter took it to mean Peter was important.
September believed that his intervention would be the end of the problem forever. He was dramatically wrong, however. Walter's crossing over had been unnatural, and broken the barrier between both universes, setting them on collision course. The two worlds were now headed for war- a war that was never meant to be. Perhaps even more drastic, Peter Bishop's life played out very differently, as he was now a resident of an entirely new universe. The consequences of this would not be felt for many years.
Season One
September continued to watch important moments in history and, especially now, the new set of probabilities he himself
Added by MsettThe Beacon was being hunted by John Mosley. Fearful of the consequences if Mosley were to obtain it, yet hesitant to intervene again, September enlisted in Walter to hide the beacon from Mosley. He later observed as Mosely was defeated by Fringe Division, but was attacked by Peter Bishop in the process. However he was able to escape before being detained, although he revealed to Peter his telepathic abilities.
Later on, September appealed to Walter again to stop David Robert Jones from crossing over to the other universe. Jones was intent on meeting up with William Bell and initiating a plan to collapse both universes, which would allow him to prop up his own universe in the process. September took Walter to the Bishops' beach house, where he led Walter to a device that would close the portal to the Other Side.
Season Two
September continued his studies, constantly watching the Fringe Division, taking notes, and photographs.In "August", one of September's contemporaries, codename "August" kidnaps a woman, Christine Hollis, before she can die in a plane crash. August later has a meeting with his superiors and September, and they scold him for saving her, as she was supposed to die and is not "important" to history. They inform him that this problem will soon be corrected by sending a special assassin, Donald Long, to kill Christine. With the assistance of the Fringe Division, August saves her from the assassin, but is mortally wounded in the process and recovered by September before he can be interrogated. As August is dying, September questions August as to his motivation for saving Christine, and August reveals he fell in love with her after watching her for her entire life, and he asks if Christine will now be safe. September comforts him by informing him that Christine is now "important" to history, as she is indirectly responsible for the death of an Observer, and will therefore be allowed to remain alive. He watches August cry as he succumbs to his wounds.
In "Fracture" he is seen taking information from a special courier, in the form of a briefcase. An AWOL Colonel, Raymond Gordon, discovers the existence of the Observers and attempts to attack their couriers using human bombs.
After Walternate successfully crossed over and returned to the Other Side with Peter, September appeared to Olivia in "Over There: Part 1", and left a cryptic message, warning her of the events to come in the form of a picture of Peter activating The Vaccum.
Season Three
September instituted a plan meant to save Walter from drinking a poisonous compound. His plan was two-fold: It would allow him and the other Observers to see whether or not Walter would be willing to let Peter go, as well as save Walter from drinking the compound. It was Peter who drank the compound, but Walter was able to instruct Olivia how to create the cure, as he was the only one who knew how to do it.After Peter activated The Vacuum and created a bridge between the universes, September went back in time and did not save Peter from drowning in the lake. This caused Peter to be erased from existence.
Season Four
Added by AmecilyUltimately, September was kidnapped and shot by Jessica Holt. Olivia and Peter tried to save him and questioned him about what he meant when he told Olivia she was meant to die in all possible futures. Not recalling this, September realized that the moment in question hadn't happened to him yet. He decided to travel through time to discover what he could have meant. He was referring to Olivia having to die at the hand of Walter to stop William Bell from collapsing both universes. After discovering this, he went back in time, ensuring a self-fulfilling prophecy, warning Olivia that she must die. Bleeding out and seeing his life limited, September quickly disappeared.
September resurfaced in Walter's lab, still suffering from the gunshot. Through a synaptic transfer, September revealed to Peter his history. He shared memories of how he had set the entire timeline off course by distracting Walternate.
Added by MsettBefore he departed, September implanted a code into Peter's iris. This code led Peter to the beacon, which shone a light that guided a healed September back into the universe. He confirmed to Peter that he was in the right place, that Olivia was indeed Peter's Olivia, and disappeared.
September resurfaced again to warn Walter that the other Observers were coming. According to Walter, the two developed a plan to rid the world of the Observers.
2015-2036
September began to help Walter create a plan that would rid the world of Observers. As punishment for his continued intervention, the Observers removed September's tech, which resulted in him becoming a human being with emotion. The first film September and Walter watched together was "Singin' in the Rain," prompting September to go by the name Donald O'Connor. He continued to help Walter with the plan until he was taken away by Observers in Pennsylvania. They could find no evidence incriminating "Donald," and instead placed a tracker on him. Donald's son, Michael, was an instrumental part of the plan, as he and Walter intended to send him forward to the year 2167 to change the future evolution of the Observers. Donald and Walter stored Michael in a Pocket Universe to keep him safe. At an unknown time, however, Donald returned for his son and instead put him in the custody of a family on a remote island. He disappeared shortly after and was presumed to be dead.Season Five
After Walter's memories were restored by Michael, he went into the sensory deprivation tank to try and locate September. He had a memory of the New York City landscape and was able to locate September's position. The Fringe Team tracked him down and met with him in his apartment. September revealed much about the plan, including his relationship to Michael, as well as much about the Observers' origins. They went off to retrieve the last pieces of the plan. While in the storage area, Donald and Walter spoke. It is here the Donald revealed that his comment "the boy has to live" in 1985 was in reference to his own son, not Peter. Once the pieces were obtained, Donald explained that he had some last minute business to attend to, promising that he would meet up with the Fringe team soon. When he returned to the lab, the team had gone to retrieve Michael, who had been captured by Windmark. Donald begins building a machine as part of the plan, but a piece of tech he had recover was no longer functioning. He enlisted the help of December to find a replacement. Before the plan is initiated, Donald decides to take Walter's place in taking Michael to the future. However, as the plan is in effect, Donald is shot while leading Michael to the portal and Walter resumes his original role.
Monday, 3 March 2014
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