The role of Information in supporting curriculum reviews in the education sector in Tanzania

This study investigated the role of information in supporting curriculum review in the education sector in Tanzania. The information collected was based on the research questions which demanded to find the role of information in curriculum review process, the type of information required to support curriculum review process, barriers facing curriculum developers in accessing timely and relevant information as well as proposing strategies to ensure timely and relevant information is available for effective curriculum reviews. This study investigated the role of information in supporting curriculum review in the education sector in Tanzania. The information collected was based on the research questions which demanded to find the role of information in curriculum review process, the type of information required to support curriculum review process, barriers facing curriculum developers in accessing timely and relevant information as well as proposing strategies to ensure timely and relevant information is available for effective curriculum reviews. Multiple methods of data collection were employed to cross-validate and to ensure reliability of information. These were interviews and questionnaires with both close and open-ended questions. Findings revealed that information plays a significant role in supporting curriculum review process since it is what builds up the base of knowledge and skills we have on various things. It was also found that the curriculum review process required multi¬dimensional information which reflects the philosophy of the country, societal needs, cross-cutting issues and global changes, though there was low level of stakeholders' involvement in curriculum review process. Also, there were societal and structural barriers that affect the access of timely and relevant information to support curriculum review process and that the systematic process of collecting and organizing data to support curriculum review process was lacking. Media was the highly consulted source of information. The study concludes that although information plays a significant role in curriculum review process, the mechanism for ensuring access to relevant information for the process is lacking. It therefore recommends the need to improve the whole information infrastructures in a way that could foster easy access to relevant information.