Challenges experienced by heads of schools in managing teachers in public secondary schools: a case of Kilimanjaro region

This study was done to examine challenges experienced by Heads of Schools (HoS) in managing teachers in public secondary schools. It was conducted in three districts of Kilimanjaro region. The purpose of the study was to give the description of challenges experienced by HoS in planning, organising, staffing, leading and controlling teachers in public secondary schools. The study employed qualitative research approach and phenomenology design. The sample size was six HoS who were obtained purposively. Data collection methods employed were interviews, documentary review and observations. The major findings showed that HoS experienced different challenges such as; shortage of science and mathematics teachers, whereby in some schools physics and mathematics subjects had no teachers to be allocated to in spite of being compulsory subjects; some teachers lacked teachers’ personality in their dressing manners and by having bad relationship with students; low commitment of first appointment young teachers direct from universities; teachers’ incompetence in content delivery andin time in task as well as teachers’ absenteeism. All challenges were adversely affecting the teaching and learning process either directly or indirectly. Different strategies were used which were consistent to almost all schools selected. The major recommendations are for the government to recruit immediately more science and mathematics subjects’ teachers and attract more students to study science and mathematics subjects who will later be attracted to specialise in teaching field and to review teachers’ salary scheme so that teachers could be paid basing on their competence, experience and the importance of their teaching subjects to the society, community and to the development of the nation at large depending on the national policy of that time. More research, however, can be done to find out the relationship between the challenges experienced by HoS in managing teachers and students’ academic performance in public schools and another study could be done to investigate the causes of the managerial challenges experienced by HoS in managing teachers at school level in public secondary schools.