Alumni of the Month

UDSM’s search for its ‘Alumnus of the Month’ for July 2022 landed on Lyabwene Mtahabwa, an alumnus of the University of Dar es Salaam of the graduating class of 1999, currently serving as Commissioner for Education in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology headquartered in Dodoma and previously a member of the academic staff in the College of Education at the University of Dodoma.  

Lyabwene was born on 25^th December, 1966 in Kasota village in Geita. He had his early education at Uyovu Primary School in Shinyanga from 1978 to 1984, from where he proceeded to Lyamungo Secondary School in Moshi (Kilimanjaro region) for ‘O-Level’ (junior secondary) education from 1985 to 1988. In 1989, he entered high school at Musoma Secondary School in Mara region, where he had ‘A-Level’ education until 1991 and obtained his Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (ACSEE). With an immediate interest in becoming a teacher, in 1992 he applied for a two-year diploma-teacher training opportunity at Marangu TTC in Moshi, qualifying in 1994 as a secondary school teacher. He was posted to Mondo Secondary School, in Dodoma, where he taught for a year until 1995, when he left to undertake a four-year undergraduate training at the University of Dar es Salaam, with Geography and English as teaching subjects at secondary school level. He completed his B.Ed degree programme in 1999 with honours.

Upon leaving university in 1999, Mtahabwa was posted back to Mondo Secondary School in Dodoma, where he taught as a secondary school teacher until September 1999, when he relocated to Tabora Teacher Training College as a tutor. In the meanwhile, Lyabwene had applied for admission into a two-year masters’ degree programme at the University of Dar es Salaam’s Faculty of Education running from October 1999 to March 2001. On successful completion of the programme, he went back to his post at Tabora TTC where he tutored until December 2002. In the period between 2002 and 2003, he also gave a helping hand as a part-time instructor at the Tabora Centre of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT). In January 2003, the University of Dar es Salaam engaged him as an assistant lecturer.

In August 2005 Lyabwene got a scholarship for a graduate study programme at the University of Hong Kong, a programme that led to the PhD award in December 2007. Upon return, he was offered a position as a lecturer in the School of Educational Studies at the University of Dodoma (UDOM). He served in this position from 2008 to June 2012, when he was subsequently promoted to senior lecturer. In 2019, he got a government appointment to the position of Commissioner for Education in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. As a measure of commitment, Dr. Mtahabwa has previously been trusted with management and administrative tasks, including as Coordinator of Postgraduate Studies at UDOM (2008–2010); Director of Quality Assurance (2010-2018), Acting Principal, College of Education (March to October 2011) and Director of Undergraduate Studies (2017-2019). He also has rendered professional service in a variety of areas, such as Chief Editor of the Journal of Education and Development (JED) at UDOM (from 2008 to 2016) and Associate Editor, JED (from 2016). He has served as a National Consultant for UNICEF Tanzania in the preparation of the Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) policy in 2013; Consultant to UNICEF in the preparation of curricular materials in Early Childhood Education (ECE) (September 2015 to April 2016) and also as Consultant to TEN/MET/ANCEFA/Pestalozzi Children’s Fund for a baseline study on rights in early childhood in Tanzania (September 2013–January 2014).

Over the years, Dr. Mtahabwa has developed special study and research interests in disciplinary fields around early childhood, notably in early childhood development policy; early childhood curriculum; early childhood pedagogy; and early childhood teacher education.

He has to his credit a number of publications – journal articles, conference papers and consultancy reports. The more recent include Early childhood care and education in water-scarcity villages in Tanzania: The case of Ng’hong’onha Village, Dodoma. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 7(1), pp. 17–30 (2018); Trends in pre-primary education policy development in Tanzania Journal of Education and Development, 2, Issue 2 (2017); Assessing the current status of early childhood development (ECD) services in Zanzibar, a consultancy report submitted to UNICEF-Tanzania (with Kholowa, 2013); Transition from pre-primary to primary school pedagogy in Tanzania. Journal of Education and Development (JED), 2(1), 106–126 (2012); and Pre-primary education in Tanzania: Observations from urban and rural classrooms. International Journal of Educational Development, 30, pp. 227-235 (with Rao 2010).