Commercial Education in Tanzania: the case of Typewriting and Secretarial Courses

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Date
1976
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
This research attempts first to give a historical explanation of the evolution of commercial education in Tanzania and second a case study of typewriting and secretarial courses has been undertaken as its main empirical focus. A problem that has been the focal point of this study is: (1) What kind of students joins typewriting and secretarial programmes? (2) What is the level of satisfaction of students with their training courses? (3) And what are aspirations and expectations of students in typewriting and secretarial courses? A questionnaire was administered to a stratified sample of 234 students from two secretarial colleges. The groups of students were composed of four classes from the pre service typing, two classes from in-service typing refresher, and two groups from the in-service secretarial. The findings were tallied and put into tables for analysis. The results were analysed into three stages: student’s characteristics, satisfaction with training programmes, and aspirations and expectations of students. The results on the characteristics of students show that students attending courses are primary, form two, form four and form six leavers. Some are married while the largest numbers are single. The findings also indicate that many of the brothers, sisters and parents of students seem to have acquired primary education thus probably affecting the education of students in courses. However, majority of parents have been shown to be largely involved in agriculture hence the majority resides in rural areas. The training programmes for typewriting and secretarial courses seem to be quite satisfactory but require improvements in the curriculum, equipment and better student-teacher relationship. The present methods of selection have been found satisfactory but require improvements too. Aspirations and expectations of students indicate a realistic approach to job aspirations but the biggest numbers seem to be in favors of training which is not of typewriting and secretarial nature. However, this realistic approach is shown by the fact that students indicated choices for teaching, army security, agriculture, accountancy, clerical training and journalism all of which are possible occupations that their educational background can allow. A small but substantial percentage of students seem to be unrealistic in their aspirations because they indicated training opportunities which they cannot attain given their educational level. In this connection it is suggested that introduction of school counseling facilities might obviate potential
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF Z49.A31M6)
Keywords
Typewriting, Business education, Tanzania
Citation
Moshi, A.D.E. (1976) Commercial Education in Tanzania: the case of Typewriting and Secretarial Courses, Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam