1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of education in Tanzania

In the late 1800’s Tanganyika (present day mainland Tanzania) became a colony under German

control and in 1893, the first government schools were established. Prior to this, education was

informal, taught by elders in the community, and focused on building good citizenship and life

skills. Since that year there have been a lot of changes and improvement in system of education

due to changes in national ideology, science and technology and globalization.

The Missionaries introduced secondary education in the 1933 for the first time in Tanzania

(Masudi, 1996). Since then some more secondary schools were opened in different limited parts

of the country by religious denominations. These few secondary schools aimed at helping the

missionaries in spreading Christianity. On the other hand, the colonial government established

few secondary schools for the production of few Africans who could work as clerks and occupy

other junior posts in the colonial government machinery. In the 1950s, after more than a half-

century of colonial rule, there were only 2,409 African students in standards IX to XII (Morrison,

1976). There was an introduction of Five Year Education Plan (1956-1961) that aimed at putting

more emphasis of secondary education and improves quality of education (Mushi, 2009). This

shows that few Tanzanians received secondary education during the colonial regime.

After independent to present there have been many educational policies such as Nationalization, Privatization and liberation schools. In Tanzania education is provided by both government and private sectors.

1.2 Meaning of key terms

1.2.1 Education is the process of educating or being educated i.e. the theory and practice of teaching information about or training in a particular subject (Honrsby, 2010)

Education is one of the largest contributors of the national economic performance and human

advancement and, therefore, requires greater commitment than any other development activity

(Fisman and Roberta, 2002). It also needs skilled and highly trained and dedicated staff, quality

curriculum, infrastructure and adequate teaching and learning materials. To provide all those

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resources, government, communities, parents and other educational stakeholders must have

commitment to the educational sector (Basaya, 2004).

1.2.2 Stakeholder is a person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an

organization.

Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies.

Some examples of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, government (and its

agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business

draws its resources. Stakeholder is a person, group or organization that has interest or concern in

an organization.

1.2.3 School stakeholders are not only the school board, parents, staff, and students, but also

local business owners, community groups and leaders, professional organizations, potential

enrollments, youth organizations, the faith community, media, etc. Anyone who affects or is

affected by the school's actions is education stakeholder.

Stakeholders of education are all people, group of people, party, organizations and individuals

who involved in contribution or otherwise deals with matters relating to education in one way or

another. Stakeholders of education in Tanzania include Ministry of education, National

Examination Council of Tanzania, students, teachers, parents, school boards, Non-Governmental

Organization, political leaders and donors.

1.2.4 Quality constitutes the characteristics of the goodness of inputs, process or

output/outcomes of an activity or a program which satisfies the needs or expectations of an

evaluator, a group of evaluators or a community in time and space (Temu, 1995)

1.2.5 Quality of education is a multidimensional concept, which includes all the related

functions and activities that form part of the academic life in a secondary school. Therefore, any

framework for the assessment of quality should take into account the quality of students,

teachers, infrastructure, student support services, curricula, assessment and learning resources

(Ullah, M.H, Ajamal, M and Rahman, F, 2009)

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Quality of education is measured by the ability of the learners to accomplish the task given at a

certain degree and also how the learner can adopt the environment physically and mentally. The

key purpose of education, particularly in a poor country like Tanzania, is to transform society by

building a thoughtful and vibrant citizenry, capable of holding their leaders accountable, making

environmentally and socially sustainable use of the country’s resources to improve the standard

of living of all citizens (Telli, 2012).

1.2.6 Performance is the accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed. In a contract, performance is deemed to be the fulfillment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities under the contract.

2.0 STAKEHOLDERS VIEWS ON THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN SECONDARY

SCHOOLS OF TANZANIA

Stakeholders of education are all people, group of people, party, organizations and individuals

who involved in contribution or otherwise deals with matters relating to education in one way or

another.

2.1 Political leaders mean the group of person who are involved in influencing public policy and

decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and

people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, inheritance, coup d'état,

appointment, electoral fraud, conquest, divine right, or other means. Political leaders are of two

parties i.e. those who are leading the government and those oppose government. The leaders

emphasizes that the quality of education in Tanzania is improving day after day compared to

what we inherit from colonial government in form. Generally political leaders views in education

quality is not straight because when they are in front of the citizens they campaign that our

education is of standard quality but they send their children to study abroad or if they study in

Tanzania they select those private school they believe is of high quality.

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2.2 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) views education in Tanzania as the among the

sector that the Government is not putting enough energy and they always report on poor

performance of form two and form four is due to poor management of education in Tanzania.

NGOs contribute much in education of Tanzania, organizations such as TACAIDS, Haki Elimu,

World Vision, JAICA, Compassion and others provides a lot of support to the students and

schools e.g. they help in school fees, teaching and learning materials and also on constructions of

classrooms, library and laboratory.

2.3 Parents play key roles as educational stakeholders. Parents' primary objective is the

assurance that their children will receive a quality education, which will enable the children to

lead productive rewarding lives as adults in a global society (Cotton and Wikelund, 2001).

Parents in Tanzania view the quality of education in different perspective according to the level

of income. It is obvious that there are classes of schools in Tanzania, when we compare private

schools and public schools they are quite different in terms of infrastructures, teaching and

learning materials, quality education and teaching staff. Parents who are well off sent their

children to better schools (private school) because they beliefs they will get quality education.

They view the quality of education in most government school to be poor.

2.4 The student plays the lead role in the educational process and as stakeholders are expected

to participate in the process. "Successful schools encourage significant participation by parents,

students and teachers (Wilson, 2008)." Students in most ward schools especial those located in

rural areas sees quality of education poor because of some infrastructures which when compared

to primary schools they seem to be very poor.

2.5 The teacher as a stakeholder is expected to possess the professional knowledge to lead the

students in instruction. In addition to serving in an instructional role the teacher can be a mentor,

supervisor, counselor, and community leader. The teacher, along with the student, plays an

interactive role in the education process because one cannot function without the other. "The

empowerment of teachers will facilitate the empowerment of students (Short and Greer, 2002)."

Teacher empowerment takes the form of providing teachers with a significant role in decisions

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making, control over their work environment and conditions, and opportunities to serve in a

range of professional roles (Short and Greer, 2002). Teachers in Tanzania especially who are

employed by the Government views education as not well emphasized and the government is not

serious about improving the quality of education through improving the working conditions for

teachers. There is no motivation for teachers to work hard as those in private schools.

2.6 Religious institutions in Tanzania play big role in education because they own schools and

teachers’ training colleges and also they assist in paying school fees for some of students who

fail to contribute for it. Religions in Tanzania somehow appreciate the quality of education

provided because they also provide religious education in schools as a subject tested at the end of

the course.

2.7 School boards and committee

A school board is comprised of members that are usually elected by the residents of the school

district, but in some districts are elected by the mayor or other executives of jurisdictions that

may include towns, cities, or counties. According to Darden (2008), the school board has to take

in legal considerations when making decisions pertaining to policy governing them and they also

work hands in hands with the schools to improve the quality of education in Tanzania, their

views in education depends on the type of school whether it is private or government. School

boards in collaboration with parents, educational bodies, teachers and students work hard to

ensure better and quality education in their schools.

2.8 Ministry of education and Government bodies like NECTA, Institute of Curriculum

Development, Tanzania Institute of Education, PMO-LGA, and other views education as in the

good run improving in quality compared to previous 5 years. Looking at the number of

enrollments, the number of new schools and the number of teachers have employed in 5 years

and the number of students qualified and selected to join A-level at that time you will agree that

the quality of education in secondary schools in Tanzania has improved to some extent.

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3.0 HOW QUALITY EDUCATION CAN BE MAINTAINED TO ENSURE BETTER

PERFORMANCE

3.1 Background of the chapter

The quality of education challenge, as indicated earlier, was debated hotly and discussed widely

in Tanzania (HakiElimu, 2005). Researchers, civil society organizations, parents, teachers and

students raised their voices on the issues tirelessly. Unfortunately, in terms of policy, the

government so far has not given it a serious consideration. In fact, the priority of their education

policy places enrollment first with quality following later; after children are enrolled and are in

schools. As a result, enrollment rates soared and at the same time dropout rates rose to a very

high level, nearly 40% in some regions (Wedgwood, 2006). At the secondary school level, in

2003 nearly 350,000 students were enrolled in Form One to Form Six. By 2006, the number had

increased to more than 675,000 (MoEVT, 2008). By any measure, these are large increases in

enrollment over a short period of time. Expansion of access to education has been a significant

achievement of SEDP to date. However, such increases in secondary school enrollment have led

to problems such as increased teacher-to-pupil ratios and significantly lowered quality of

education (HakiElimu, 2007).

3.2 Improvement of teaching and learning materials

If you look at those schools doing well in National examination you can come up with the facts

that teaching and learning materials is the key for their success. Teaching and learning materials

includes text books and reference books, teaching aids, library, laboratory with requirements,

better classrooms, and other materials which facilitate the whole process of teaching and

learning. The government should ensure that every school in this country possesses the quality of

being the school with at least the mentioned teaching and learning materials.

3.3 Construction of school infrastructures

School is an institution so the government should ensure every school infrastructures is attracting

students and teachers to work hard. School buildings i.e. administration block, classrooms,

library, laboratory, meeting hall, storerooms, toilets should be well vanished so that the learning

environment for learners to be conducive. Also services like water, transport, communication, 6

electricity and internet services should be there. The quality education can be maintained in

education and the government may produce its own labour force in engineering, hospitals,

industrials, and in every sector of economy.

3.4 Curriculum development

Since 2005, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania has been implementing a

competence based curriculum, which emphasizes the development of certain specified key

competences. A set of standards of resources (textual and non-textual) have been identified for

effective implementation of competence based curriculum. These, include a number of teaching

and learning resources such as textbooks, syllabi, modules and manuals, reference books, charts

and maps, newspapers, journals, and encyclopedias’, texts in Braille, posters, fliers and

photographs, and booklets and brochures.

The curriculum should be constructed in such a way that it will answer the questions of various

education stakeholders. Many stakeholders blame the Tanzania national educational goals of

education that did not direct the curriculum developer in a proper way that lead them in

preparing the curriculum which is appropriate to the requirements of our country. Many argue

the inclusion of subjects which will help the school leavers to be able to employ themselves and

be productive, subject like agriculture, entrepreneurship, technical skills, and others should be

taught from primary school to colleges.

3.5 Language of instruction should change

In fact, Swahili is the language of instruction in public primary schools in Tanzania while

English is taught just as a single subject. Note also that 99.1% of school age children in Tanzania

attend public schools while only 0.9% attends private schools (URT, 2005) where the language

of instruction is English from kindergarten to high school. When a public school pupil moves up

to secondary school the language of instruction suddenly changes to English. All subjects, except

Swahili are taught in English in both public and private secondary schools (MoEVT, 2008). The

learning process becomes very difficult for students as they move up to secondary schools

because the majority of them normally lack a basic command of English language (Qorro, 2006).

It is therefore understandable that many, including Solorzano (1998), have questioned the type of

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learning theory that informs the best way to teach students in a language they don't yet

comprehend, read, or speak. In fact, according to numerous studies (Canada-Ministry of

Education, 2005; UNESCO, 2005; Qorro, 2006; Rajani 2007), learners can only actively

participate in knowledge creation if they are allowed to use the language they understand very

well, which, in most cases, is the language they usually speak in their day-to-day life. Qorro

(2006), for example, in her study preview found out that scholars, researchers and activists in

Tanzania support the idea that the medium of instruction be Swahili from primary to secondary

schools. The government should listen and adhere to researchers above who suggest the use of

Kiswahili as the medium of instruction in secondary school so as to improve understanding and

maintain quality of education in Tanzania.

3.6 Improve the methods of teaching and learning

Teaching and learning methods competence based curriculum emphasizes a learner centered

approach with a focus on multiple teaching and learning methods. The teaching approach is to

encourage learners to be actively involved and take responsibility of their own learning through

participatory and interaction teaching and learning methods in the classroom. Most teachers likes

to use lecture methods in teaching, but emphasize is now put on the participator methods which

is child centered. The most frequently used methods in the developed world are group works and

presentations, problem solving and enquiry and debates and group discussions. In order to ensure

and improve the quality of education in Tanzania, the government should also ensure the

improvement of teaching methods which is the key to quality of education.

3.7 Good relationship between school and community

Community should be educated and involved in school matters to solve various disputes and

conflicts that may arise between school and surrounding community. The school should

participate in improving social public relationship with surrounding community.

The community through the school committee is responsible for supporting the teacher’s

professional development by providing the necessary resources in the budget. The teacher is

responsible for being proactive in seeking for opportunities for his or her own professional

development. The participation of parents in their children's education plays an important part in

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improving the running of the school and in the quality of the children's education. It is true that

parents may participate on a voluntary basis through direct involvement in educational activities

or via advisory bodies, voluntary associations or after-school clubs.

3.8 Qualification of teachers should be considered

It is said that in Tanzania teachers are found from those lower level of pass mark in form four

and form six and it is true to some extent because the requirement to joint teachers’ training

college you are required to have at least division four 28 points, the pass mark of which you

cannot be selected to join other advanced levels. There is agreement among scholars about the

importance of the teacher and her/his competence in the teaching-learning process.

The teacher is the heart of classroom instruction (Hawes 1979; Galabawa 2001; URT 2007). The

effectiveness of the teacher depends on her competence (academically and pedagogically) and

efficiency, (ability, work load, and commitment), teaching and learning resources and methods;

support from education managers and supervisors (Rogan 2004; Van den Akker & Thijs 2002;

Mosha 2004). Teacher Professional Development provides opportunities for teachers to explore

new roles, develop new instructional techniques, refine their practice and broaden themselves

both as educators and as individuals. In the context of Tanzania the Ministry of Education and

Vocational Training is responsible for providing policy and financial support for Teacher

Professional Development. Universities and Teacher Education colleges are responsible for

providing training, conducting policy oriented research and providing relevant literature and

materials to support teachers in schools. School management on its part is supposed to provide

support to the teacher on a daily basis through advice, supervision, monitoring and evaluation of

the teaching and learning activities.

3.9 Improving of living standard of teachers

In Tanzania, strong evidence exists that the vast majority of teachers are unhappy with their

salaries, housing arrangements, benefits, workload, and status within their communities (MOEC

2003, 2004; Davidson 2004, 2005; Sumra 2004; HakiElimu 2005). These poor living and

working conditions have, over time, seriously eroded many teachers’ motivation to carry out

their teaching and non-teaching roles in an acceptable manner. To bring about these

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improvements, attempts must be made to improve the incentives that teachers receive in

exchange for the hard work they are expected to undertake. Serious efforts also must be made to

ensure that all teachers know the benefits to which they are entitled and that they actually receive

them. In return, teachers should be made aware of their roles and responsibilities. Checks and

balances need to be created to ensure that these are fulfilled. Once these incentives are in place,

teachers will enjoy greater status, have much higher levels of motivation and, in turn, become

key players in implementing quality improvement initiatives that are essential if high-quality,

sustainable to be achieved.

3.10 Teachers should be motivated to work hard

Teacher’s motivation is the most important of all factors. A teacher’s intrinsic drive towards self

improvement cannot be matched with any amount of pressure from the educational managers.

For real Teacher Professional Development, the teacher herself/himself has to perceive it

positively. The teacher has to see and accept the need to grow professionally. A teacher who

perceives professional development positively is eager to attain new knowledge, skills, attitudes,

values, and dispositions. Within such dispositions there is pride, self – esteem, team spirit,

commitment, drive, adventure, creativity, and vision. All these attributes have to be owned by

the teacher (Mosha 2006). Teacher’s perception depends on self-evaluation, the influence and

support of school leadership, and school culture.

A School Management with motivating culture encourages teachers to engage in professional

development programs at the school or elsewhere. A motivated teacher learns from others and is

more likely to attend various professional development activities. Motivation can be intrinsic or

extrinsic which drives the teacher towards self improvement. Collegiality within the school is

part of the school culture. If teachers cooperate, there is room for them to learn from each other

(Galabawa & Agu 2001, p.6). The role of School Management is to encourage this culture to

prevail in the school and between the schools. This is one of the indicators of the presence of a

responsible School Management in the school. Planning, that is, the setting of goals and

objectives with activities to be done at the specified time is one of the main roles of the School

Management. To involve all teachers in the school during the planning processes should be part

of the school culture. Effective participation leads to a feeling of ownership and easy

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implementation (Galabawa 2001). Meaningful improvement in the education system requires

pressure from below, support from above, and continuous negotiations among those at different

levels of the system. The professional development issue, therefore, should be regularly

discussed by teachers because they know what they need most. Administrators and supervisors

should be guiding, supporting, monitoring the implementation, and evaluating the work done.

Effective communication among the key players is very crucial (Campy 2000)

3.11 Community should be involved directly in school support

The issue about school management capacity, particularly the functioning of school committees,

has been recognized by education stakeholders in Tanzania as a crucial element in promoting

good quality education. In fact, it is a fundamental component of the Primary Education

Development Program (TEN/MET 2004). Non Governmental Organizations working in

Tanzania have identified twelve aspects as being critical to school committee capacity

development, calling for support. The key aspects are: information and communication,

ownership or accountability, community mobilization and facilitation, motivation, collaboration,

gender mainstreaming, resource mobilization, HIV/AIDS, Children’s Participation, School e.g.

awareness of HIV/AIDS). The training focuses on general roles and responsibilities, planning,

budgeting and development skills, mobilization and management of local resources for

educational development, general management skills, financial and resource accounting

networking and relationship building. While the efforts towards school committee capacity

development are appreciated, it should be noted that there is no documentation about the

development of capacity for Teacher Professional Development.

4.0 CONCLUSION

The roles of each stakeholder in improvement of quality of education provide an integral part in

the education perspective in our country. Like a system of checks and balances, the ministry of

education with collaboration with Prime Ministers’ Office and Local Government Authority

work hand in hand with Heads of schools to ensure the educational goals is met. The parents and

students, as stakeholders, have a right to complain to the board, to the administration, and to the

ministries concerning the changes and adherence to policy. Though each stakeholder has a say in

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the business of the education, the power and influence of say may depend on the role and the

position of a stakeholder.

As the ideas and methodology change to meet the information age, the structure and hierarchy

within a school management and the role of the stakeholders may change. As the roles change

for the stakeholders, a new set of skills will have to be incorporated into each role. Additionally,

decision making powers may shift; the check and balance system may move in different

directions; and the final authority may come from stakeholders other than the school board or the

ministry of education.

Improvement of quality of Education in Tanzania face many challenges including inadequate

resources, lack of teaching and learning facilities and inadequate infrastructure. Decision makers

need to understand that inadequate and unreliable transport for students in various cities and

towns in Tanzania has been one of the chronic problems which hinder their academic progress. It

also causes some other social problems such as poor academic performance, teen pregnancies

and other delinquencies such as students fighting with town bus conductors. Those in rural area

are in danger of being rap because they are coming from far and cross bushes and forest where

gangsters may hide and disturb them. The government is alarmed to construct hostels and

dormitories for students especially girls. At present the government of Tanzania with assistance

from internal and external donors and stakeholders is in strategic constructions of girls

dormitories in those districts seems to have chronic problems of dropout caused by teen

pregnancies and other delinquencies such as students fighting with town bus conductors.

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5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

After analyzing the views of stakeholder on the quality of education and showing how the

quality of education can be maintained so as to ensure the better performance we come up with

the following suggestions to the Government in order to help in the improvement of education

quality in our country.

i) Language of instructions seems to be an obstacle to learn and understand. The

learning process becomes very difficult for students as they move up to secondary

schools because the majority of them normally lack a basic command of English

language (Qorro, 2006). Language of instruction should change from English to

Kiswahili as fast as possible so as to ensure maximum understanding of concepts by

students.

ii) School fees are also an obstacle for many students so it should be free for 100%. Cost

sharing is helpful but there are parents who fail to pay even their share. School fees

should be omitted to ensure all students enrolled/admitted to form one join the posted

school.

iii) National goal of education should be to prepare school leavers for self employment

and be practically measured in the living environment.

iv) Politics should not interfear school management and operation of routine activities of

school.

v) School dropout should be considered a criminal case so as to help the government

punish those (a student, guardian or a parent) who cause dropout.

vi) Teachers’ problems and complaints should be solved early before things get hot in

order to please them and motivate them, also they should have appreciated of their

products.

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6.0 REFERENCES

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Darden, E. (2008). Policy, the law, and you. American School Board Journal, 195(4). Retrieved on June 19, 2008, from EBSCOhost database.

Galabawa J. C. J, (2002) Motivating Teachers and Students, A Review in Education, University of Dar es Salaam Press, Dar es Salaam

HakiElimu. (2007). Two years of SEDP implementation (2004-2006): Key findings from government reviews: HakiElimu, Dar es Salaam.

Hornsby A.S, (2010), Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 7 th Edition, oxford University Press, UK.

Ministry of Education and Culture Tanzania Mainland, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training Zanzibar, National Report of URT, Presented at the 48 th session of the International Conference on Education, Geneva, 2008.

MOEC (1995): Education and Training Policy.

Mosha (2011), Fifty years of the University of Dar es Salaam

Short, P. M. and Greer, J. T. (2002), Leadership in empowered schools: Themes from innovative efforts, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Telli G, (2012) stakeholders of education and education system, Department of education, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam.

Temu E. B, (1995), Successful Schools in Tanzania, a case study of Academic and Production Programs in Primary and Secondary Schools, Institute of International Education, Stockholm University, Stockholm.

TEN/MET (2007), Report on Critical Issues and Challenges in Secondary Education in Tanzania. Study conducted by the Bureau of Education Research and Evaluation, Unpublished. Faculty of Education, University of Dar es Salaam.

Ullah M. H, Ajmal M & Rahman F, (2009), Analysis of Quality of Education in Pakistan, Kathmandu State University, Karachi.

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UNESCO (1999): Education for All: A framework for Action in Sub-Sahara Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa.

UNESCO (2001), Report on International Consultation on Educational Governance at Local Levels, Paris 27-28 February 2001,UNESCO, Paris.

United Republic of Tanzania (URT) (2006). A Brief Statement by Hon. Margaret S. Sitta, Minister for Education and Vocational Training at the Education Sector High Level Meeting June 7 th 2006.

URT (1995): The Education and Training Policy, Dar es Salaam.

URT (1996): Guidelines for HIV.AIDS/STIs Preventive Education for Schools, Version 1.0, Dar es Salaam.

Watson, S. L., & Reigeluth, C. M. (2008). Community members' perception on social, cultural changes and its implication for educational transformation in a small school district community. Journal of Organizational Transformation and Social Changes, Ney York.

Wilson, L. (2008), Great American schools: The power of culture and passion, Education Digest, 73(6), 13-18.

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