Effectiveness of disciplinary measures applied in Tanzanian public primary schools in enhancing teachers’ ethical conduct.

This study focused on the effectiveness of disciplinary measures applied in Tanzanian public primary schools in enhancing teachers’ ethical conduct. It was guided by four research objectives: To identify disciplinary cases commonly committed by primary school teachers; To determine the role of Teachers Service Commission in enhancing teachers ethical conducts; To explore strategies employed by heads of Schools and the Teachers’ Service Commission to address unethical conducts’ in their respective schools and fourthly, To establish measures taken by head teachers and the Teachers Service Commission against unethical teachers. The area of study was Kisarawe district in Coast Region (Pwani) whereby a population of 116 participants was included in the study. It involved three TSC officers including one District TSC Discipline officer, one District TSC Human Resource Office, the District Primary Education Officer; one Chief District Education Quality Assurer, one district secretary of Tanzania Teachers Union, 10 Headteachers, 60 primary school teachers, and 40 Pupils. The selection involved three types of sampling techniques, namely simple random, purposive sampling and stratified sampling techniques. This study employed mixed methods research approach under the case study design. Instruments used to collect data included interviews, documentary review, questionnaires and focus group discussions. Qualitative data were subjected to content analysis while quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics facilitated by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study found out a range of malpractices among public primary school teachers including absenteeism, cheating and forgery sexual abuse, corporal punishment and unethical dressing. Findings revealed TSC playing an important role of sensitizing teachers on their rights, responsibilities, as well as their code of conducts and ethics by providing guidelines, circulars, and regulations pertaining to professional ethics and discipline. However, there was no specific approach that was employed in distributing the code of conducts to both new and in-service teachers. There were contradictions on how to conduct summary proceedings among head teachers and misuse of regulations. Finally, the study discovered some punishments were not discharged to teachers despite their appropriateness in enhancing ethical conducts. Therefore, there is a need to make use of the regulations so as to apply fair and useful disciplinary measures. Finally, it is recommended to conduct another study by focusing on teachers who were once accused of misconducts so as to find out information about teachers’ ethical conducts in detail.