Browsing by Author "Kichere, Devota"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Effectiveness of community secondary schools in delivering quality education in Tanzania: the case of Maswa district
    (Unversity of Dar es Salaam, 2010) Kichere, Devota
    The study aimed at examining the effectiveness of Community Secondary Schools (CSS) in delivering quality education. Particularly, the study attempted to examine the extent to which CCS meet, maintain, and enhance education standards; to investigate influencing factors, and society attitudes towards CSS and the reasons behind. The study was conducted in the six CSS located at Maswa district in Shinyanga region. The study sample included 178 respondents: 144 students, 24 teachers, six school heads, DEO, DAO, and two DEI. The methodological underpinning of the study draws on quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study used questionnaire, interviews, observation schedules, and documentary review as research instruments. Quantitative data were processed through the Statistical Package for Social Science and summarised into tables and figures while qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. The research findings indicated the following. First, education inputs in selected CSS to a large extent did not meet set education benchmarks both quantitatively and qualitatively in terms of essential human resources, physical resources, fiscal resources, and social services. Also education quality control mechanisms were ineffective as selected schools run for more than two years without being inspected. Still these CSS faced several hindrance factors such as acute shortage of qualified teachers, teaching-learning facilities and funding. Students’ poor primary education and English language base, poor home environment, poor teaching and learning methods influenced the quality of education delivery and eventually both education output and outcome. Moreover, the findings confirmed that there is negative attitude emerging in the society towards CSS. Education stakeholders showed dissatisfaction with the quality of education provided in CCS. Discontent emanated from poor teaching and learning environment, poor academic performance, and weak partnership between the government and communities on construction and operation of CSS. On the basis of the findings the study recommends another similar study with wider coverage of CCS in various regions needs to be done indicating existing similarities and differences which might have strong basis for generalisation and significant implications for policy making and practical alteration on quality education provision.