Socialist consciousness formation in Tanzania schools: a brief survey of some Tanzanian secondary school

The objective of this survey has been to attempt to study three main things. (a) to investigate the extent and scope of change of attitudes and norms among students in Tanzania Secondary Schools in the period since the Arusha Declaration, 1967 to 1975; (b) to examine the level of consciousness of these students by testing their understanding of the meanings of certain basic socialist concepts. (c) To try to identify the factors in the structure and practice of schools and the social environment which seem to be contributing factors to the observed change of attitudes and the level of socialist consciousness. The methodology included a questionnaire survey. This survey is based on questionnaire responses from students in secondary schools. The 1975 survey, is made up of three secondary schools representing about 2.5% of all the public secondary schools in Tanzania at the current period. They were deliberately selected due to their homogeneity in certain aspects, la factory which is important when a sample is severely small. Only form four students were selected. A total of 269 students were surveyed. Minaki 106, Tanga 47 and Old Moshi 116. The research and discussion in presented in four major parts. The first part provides a framework on education and ideology. It stresses that there is no neutral education, for practice has shown that education is always an instrument for disseminating and furthering the values of and attitudes of the ruling class in every society. The second part is devoted to the research objectives and methodology used in collecting the data. The third part which forms of the core of their search, deals with the interpretation of the data collected in both this research (1975) and the one of 1966. It is divided into three sections: comparative value change since 1966, the new concepts of information and the agents for the observed change. The analysis is presented in percentages and tables. The observed change or formation are noted by the size of the percentages. The fourth part deals with a general appraisal of the whole survey results. An attempt; is also made on criticism and self criticism for future strategies for increased socialist consciousness through the education system in Tanzania. It is hoped that the result of this research will also shift the emphasis from the general citizenship norms to socialist norms and in this way contribute to the continuing debates on socialist construction in Tanzania