Education Emphasis In Tanganyika

Press, Volume C, Issue 29568, 18 July 1961, Page 2

Education Emphasis In Tanganyika

"Educational programmes are being given top priority by Tanganyika’s Government,” said Mrs M. L. Wiggins in an Interview yesterday. Mrs Wiggins, formerly Miss Margaret Evans, of Christchurch, is the wife of the Bishop of Southern Victoria Nyanza, Central Tanganyika. Together with her husband and their daughter, Ruth, she is on furlough in New Zealand until March. “The Government is well aware that the only way to get more leaders is to step up and expand educational plans. There is a desperate

shortage of teachers in Tanganyika and recruits from overseas are very difficult to obtain. ‘1 think this is because many people are worried about the renewed Mau Mau threat in Kenya and fear that another Congo situation may develop. “This is not at all likely. Tanganyika has travelled the road to self-government very smoothly indeed. She has a strong well-balanced government which can control any awkward situation. It has already restricted tribal movements from Kenya into Tanganyika. "With the lack of teachers, secondary education for girls has up till now been given second place to education for boys. The Government has just recruited TO graduates from America but many more are needed," she said. • A large part of Mrs Wiggins’s time is spent on

safari with her husband visiting parishioners in their 52.000 square miles diocese. “We take a tent and a utility vehicle and live off the land as much as possible,” she said. Home for Mrs Wiggins is in Mwanza, a town on Lake Victoria. Servants free her from household chores and leave her more time to help with young wives’ groups and the African Mothers’ Union. “We provide health and hygiene courses for the mothers as well as courses on child care and training,” she said. "The majority of Africans in the bush still cook on three stones and we are concerned with showing them how to get the best use from traditional ways. Lately we have been publishing simple recipes which can be prepared on primus stoves and on kerosene tin ovens,” she said. “Tanganyika’s development is patchy. Some sections of the people are more advanced than others. Those who work in the civil service or in commerce and m other skilled occupations are now beginning to build homes Of concrete blocks with cement floors and tin roofs tn place of the traditional mud hut with thatched roof.” said Mrs Wiggins. “The African diet is mainly cereals such as maize, fruit, meat and vegetables. With vefy little milk available in many parts of the country research is being done to find a substitute. "U.N.E.S.C.O. supplies supplementary foods, but the African, _ like many other peoples, is rather conservative when it eomes to accepting new ways. He needs encouragement to try then. “The Government's aim is to raise the basic standard of living. Loans, without conditions, are accepted to initiate and further schemes for irrigation, road building and all other plans for national development Tanganyikans, leaders and people nlilre. have great faith in their country’s future,” Mrs Wiggins said.