Quality of Education in Community Secondary Schools the Case of Karagwe District, Tanzania

Abstract

Community efforts and the Secondary Education Development Programme (SEDP) that was implemented from 2006 to 2009   facilitated every ward to have a secondary school in Tanzania. This has resulted in the increased enrolment rate to secondary school from 72 percent in 2005 to over hundred in 2010. This quick improvement has made many scholars to question and doubt on the quality of education offered to the community schools in Tanzania. The main objective of this study was to analyze the quality of education of the community secondary schools established under Secondary Education Development Programme (SEDP) in comparison to private schools in Karagwe District. Specifically the study determined the perception of community members (students, teachers, and parents) to community secondary schools; also a comparison of academic performance between community and private secondary schools in rural and urban areas was made. It was an exploratory study which used a cross-sectional approach. The study was carried under two phases. Phase one of the study involved pilot study, the second phase involved structured questionnaire surveys as the major tool for data collection. Other instruments used were interview and observation schedules, likert scale, Focus Group Discussion (FGDs), checklist and documentary review. The study was carried in eight secondary schools purposefully selected out of 46 secondary schools in Karagwe District. Four of the selected schools were community schools under SEDP (two of them were located in the urban and the other two were located in the rural areas) while the other four were private schools (two located in urban and other two were located in rural areas). It involved 377 respondents (192 students, 32 teachers and 144 parents, 8 head of schools and one District Education Officer) purposefully and randomly sampled. The Statistical Package for Social Science was used to analyze quantitative data whereas Content Analysis was used for qualitative data. The study reveals that all community members (students, teachers and parents) had a positive attitude to community secondary schools regardless of having poor environment for the provision of quality education. On the academic performance of the schools, the study findings revealed that the quality of education in and private secondary schools was relatively poor.  Furthermore the study findings revealed that community rural schools performed slightly better in Form Two National Examinations than the urban community schools. The situation was different in private schools in which urban private schools performed much better than the rural private schools. The study recommends the following for policy actions; strengthening teacher training on teaching skills and pedagogies, recruitment and retention of qualified teachers and the provision of adequate number of subject textbooks in accordance to the available number of students in line with the construction and supply of appropriate library and laboratory facilities for the provision of quality education in community schools.