Financing private secondary schools in Tanzania mainland: the case study of Tanga region

The study investigated how Private Secondary Schools (PSS) in Tanzania mainland are financed. The aim was to identify sources of funds for these schools. It also examined how each source contributes to school budget and assessed the adequacy of funding in meeting of the PSSs needs in terms of school infrastructure, human resources funding resources and teaching learning materials. Finally, the study assessed the opinions of heads of schools and managers on the challenges they face in meeting the schools' running costs. The findings of the study indicated that the major source of financing PSSs was Parents (School fees). Other financial sources albeit inadequate included donations, income generation projects and fund raising. The findings show that girl' schools spent more than boys and mixed (boys and girls) schools. They also revealed that the high Teachers' Knowledge Stock Index (TKSI) was related to high quality teachers which also reflected high unit costs. The researcher also observed that variations in the quality of infrastructure, equipment, and human resource and T-L materials reflected the variations in the schools' unit costs. The researcher recommends that the government should set PSSs fees by factoring in the rising costs of goods and services fuelled by inflation. It should also consider giving support to PSSs under the envisaged Public Private Partnership. PSSs should establish income generating projects to augment the major source of funds (school fees). The study recommends a similar study using a larger sample to obtain results that will give the national insight on how better PSSs can be financed.