Factors affecting the effective mapping of secondary schools in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The study examined the factors affecting the effective implementation of school mapping in secondary schools in Dar as Salaam city involving nine secondary schools. In particular, it was geared at achieving the specific objectives of exploring how school mapping and micro planning were executed, determining the extent to which the mapping of secondary schools and micro planning have affected resources planning and examining what school management was doing to address the challenges relating to school mapping and micro planning in order to enhance the performance in Dar es Salaam city secondary schools during the implementation of SEDP I and II. The conceptual framework that guided the study was an adapted version of Caillod’s methodological stages in the mapping of schools. The study utilized qualitative research approach applying cross sectional study design. Purposive, stratified and simple random sampling procedures were used to select a sample of 117 respondents involving (3) school zonal inspectors, (3) district secondary education officers, (9) heads of schools, (45) ordinary level school teachers and (57) ordinary level students. Data were collected through interview, focus group discussion and documentary review then were analysed qualitatively through content analysis. The findings of the study showed that the criteria used to locate schools for optimum resources allocation include their vision and mission, population, availability of space, policy advocacy, the community’s willingness to be partners and the challenges relating to school mapping and micro planning. During the implementation of SEDP I and II the shortage of human resources, poor financing, poor infrastructure, poor governance, lack of community commitment and accountability and political interference were experienced. The approach used to address them involved developing human resources, and partnership (PPP, PNP, PBP), redesigning jobs (job sharing and flexi-time) and encouraging teamwork. The findings show that to some extent these were achieved. In the light of the study findings and discussion, the researcher recommended that, before the introduction of any change in education, there is a need fir to be clear about the objectives that are intended to achieve. Then, an intensive analysis needs to be done to ensure that whatever alternatives selected for use to implement will achieve the intended objectives without too many negative effects or, if there are some negative effects, they are overshadowed by the positive effects and they can be minimized. Therefore any change in the education system should be judged on its potential to improve teaching and learning at the classroom level and how it is improving the quality of the education provided. Further research is recommended to cover a wider area in the country for comparison purposes between public and private school practices.