Decision making in public primary schools within the constraints of legislations in chunya district Tanzania

Decision making is a vital practice that brings about all managerial functions (planning, organizing, directing, controlling and staffing) in an organization. It helps to determine organizational and managerial activities and sustain them while ensuring best growth and drivability in terms of service offered. This study focused on decision making in public primary schools within the context of legislations in Chunya District, Tanzania. Specifically, the study identified legislations constraining decision making in public primary school management, examined ways in which public primary schools managers and administrators interpreted legislations, examined how legal constraints affected management of public primary schools and finally identified strategies designed by educational managers in public primary schools to respond to effects of constraints imposed by legislations. The study applied qualitative approach and a case study design. It was conducted in ten schools with a sample of 74 participants. The study used purposive sampling technique to get the required sample. Data were collected through interview, focused group discussion and documentary review and were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that corporal punishment regulation, The Tax Act, Public Procurement Regulations, Education Circulars, Education Acts, and Primary School Regulation on Compulsory Enrollment and Attendance constrained decision making in public primary schools management. It was also discovered that public primary schools managers and administrators interpreted legislations in three ways: interpretation based on the work situation, interpretation based on implementation, and interpretation based on work results. The effects of legal constraints on public primary schools were shortage of teachers, shortage of classrooms, wastage of time for teaching in classrooms, shortage of fund to run school programmes such as provision of food, and shortage of teaching and learning materials like books. Strategies designed by educational managers in public primary schools to respond to effects of constraints imposed by educational legislations were hiding information on the use support teachers, employing secondary school leavers to teach, convincing parents to enroll their children early before January, writing examination or test questions on the board, increasing self reliance activities, preparing lesson plans after lessons have been taught, combining streams into one room, providing few questions in class work, ignoring and forging some procedures, and borrowing money for school activities. The study concluded that legislations constrained decision making in public primary schools in Chunya District. Lastly, the study recommended that the legislative bodies such as parliament should make sure that the enacted legislations allow flexibility in regard to different implementation contexts reflecting schools’ geographical locations.