Management of occupational health and safety services in Tanzanian secondary schools: A Case of Magu District

Abstract

This study examined the management of Occupational Health and Safety services in Tanzanian secondary schools using a case of Magu District. The study was guided by four objectives, which were to explore the health and safety hazards conditions in secondary schools; to identify the management system of OHS in secondary schools; explore how teachers and supporting staff are involved in the management of OHS services in secondary schools and examine the teachers’ and supporting staff’s perceptions of OHS services in secondary schools. The study used the qualitative research approach. Specifically; it employed a single case study research design. The study covered eight secondary schools from which 131 respondents were drawn as a sample. Secondary schools were classified in strata and then the representative schools were obtained through simple random sampling. Respondent teachers and supporting staff were obtained using simple random sampling while the respondent heads of school and District Secondary Education Officers (DSEO) were obtained through purposeful sampling. Data were collected by using questionnaires, observation checklist and interviews. The questionnaires were administered to 90 respondents whereas interviews were held with 41 respondents. The thematic data analysis technique was used to analyse qualitative data where quantitative data were analysed by simple descriptive statistics by the help of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 and presented in frequency and percentages in tables. The findings revealed several health and safety hazards in schools. Such hazards include anxiety, violence, physical fight, tiredness, back pain, neck and shoulder pain, eye problem and skin inflammation and illness which were grouped into six categories of biological, ergonomic, safety, working environment, physical and chemical hazards. The study also found that there was no structured management system for OHS in secondary schools as most of the studied secondary schools were not having health and safety policy, no training and seminars to teachers and supporting staff, public schools were not fenced and both public and private secondary schools were not having fire extinguishers. However, the study found that secondary schools used several OHS management strategies like inspecting students’ lockers, growing flowering plants, slashing grasses and sweeping of school grounds, using visitor’s book and having security guards. The schools also provided safety gear to teachers and supporting staff like gloves, goggles, fume-detectors and laboratory coats. Furthermore, it was found that teachers and supporting staff had a positive attitude towards management OHS services in secondary schools. However, teachers and supporting staff have negative perceptions on how OHS services are managed to provide safe environment to live and work in. As such, the study recommends that there is a need for the government to provide training on OHS to teachers and supporting staff. Secondary schools also are supposed to formulate OHS policy.