Strategies primary school heads employ to enhance teacher discipline in Rufiji district, Tanzania.

This study examined the effectiveness of strategies primary school heads employ towards enhancing teacher discipline. Specifically, the study investigated the nature and extent of indiscipline among public primary school teachers; strategies primary school heads employ to enhance teacher discipline; and the effectiveness of these strategies in enhancing teacher discipline. The study employed a case study design that benefited from mixed methods using observation, questionnaire, interview and documentary review as data collection methods. In all, 78 informants, selected using purposive, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were involved in the study. These were the DEO, the TSD officer, the School Inspector, the WEO, primary school heads, teachers and students. The study found that teacher absenteeism, lateness, ineffective teaching, abusive language and unethical dressing were dominant forms of indiscipline cases among teachers often caused by poor living and working environment and poor economic conditions as well as personal character and school management. The major effects associated with teacher indiscipline, on the other hand, were found to be a decline in academic standards, decline in moral standards, ineffective teaching and conflicts between teachers and society. Counter-strategies that school heads deployed in an attempt to enhance teacher discipline included supervision of individual teachers, guidance and counselling, verbal and written warnings and reporting some cases to the educational officer for further action. A few of the primary school heads had failed to deliver accordingly on account of lack of managerial skills, being sources of indiscipline behaviours themselves and lack of support from higher educational officers. On the basis of these findings, the study recommends that the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training should provide pre-service headship training and induction programmes for newly-appointed and aspiring primary school heads to raise awareness on the primary school heads’ professional obligations. Also, the government should set aside an adequate budget for TSDs, DEOs, School inspectors, and WEOs for them to hold meetings and conduct seminars and workshops in addition to educating teachers at the work stations on discipline center.