The study of primary school pupils’ involvement in life skills education: a case study of Mtwara municipal and rural districts in Mtwara region

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the study of primary school pupils’ involvement in the process of teaching and learning life skills education. The study was conducted in Mtwara rural and Mtwara municipal districts of Mtwara region and specifically aimed to identify and document the methods used in teaching and learning life skills education, to examine the extent to which methods used promote pupils’ involvement in teaching and learning of the life skills education, to investigate the limitations of the methods in helping pupils acquire life skills education and to explore ways of increasing the level of pupils involvement in life skills education in primary schools already in the project. The study was guided by Brooks and Brooks (1993) constructivist learning theory. The study adopted mainly a qualitative approach applying a case study where 112 participants were obtained for the study through purposive, stratified and random sampling techniques. Data from sampled pupils, teachers, parents, district educational officials and TIE officials were obtained through interviews, documentary reviews, focus group discussions and observation and were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. Findings revealed that involvement of pupils was based to a large extent on the non interactive teaching and learning methods such as lecture, and to a lesser extent on the participatory methods that were limited by the size of the class, time located to lessons and teacher competency. The study noted that lack of sustainable training to teachers played down the application of effective integration of life skills education into other topics in the subjects taught. It was obtained that the general orientation to pupils on the life skills education had effect on the pupils’ ability to project themselves from health risks, to build assertive decision making competencies and to adopt positive behavior and healthy relationships. The study recommended to the MoEVT, TIE, USAID and the inspectorate to team up with other community members and agencies to provide regular and comprehensive teacher in-service training and optimum teaching and learning environment for proper involvement of learners into life skills education process. Further studies on life skills education implementation are also recommended to include other regions to come up with more generalized, comprehensive implications.