There are 1,400 government-sponsored students in universities abroad – 600 in Russia and Eastern Europe, 450 in India, 87 in the USA, 53 in China, 33 in Cuba, 11 in Western Europe and 10 in Canada. There were many other students in foreign universities not sponsored by the government. 1,103 students in the Ifakara, Ifunda and Tosamaganga secondary schools had been suspended from 1990 to 1993 but resumed classes after paying Shs 19 million in compensation for damage done. 32 students had been expelled – Minister for Education Professor P Sarungi.

A new DRUGS BILL has been passed in Parliament. Drug traffickers will be sentenced to life imprisonment. Between 1986 and 1994 some 20,000 bhang-related offences had occurred; some 930 Tanzanians had been arrested abroad for drug offences.

The Education Amendment Bill has set up a new autonomous body – a 10-member Higher Education Accreditation Council – to govern accreditation, grants and admission policies of all institutions of higher learning including any new private institutions which might be set up. There are plans to set up a Christian University in Morogoro – Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education Ben Mkapa.

The Government’s National Land Policy would shortly be the subject of a Bill in parliament. It would spell out citizen’s rights to land, its value and the authority of the President as its sole trustee. The Bill would aim to promote a secure ownership system and equitable distribution Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Edward Lowassa.

The buildings previously used by the South African PanAfrican Congress in Bagamoyo will be converted into a secondary school for Masai children in the area.

There were now 5 daily and 41 weekly and biweekly newspapers and the government had had to issue warnings to 10 of them for poor professional performance – Minister for Information and Broadcasting Philip Marmo.

There was an increase in university enrolment of 2,801 students last year; the University of Dar es Salaam had 1,318, Sokoine university of Agriculture 912, Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences 345, and the Open University 1,544. 339 students were sponsored in foreign universities – Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Benjamin Mkapa.