Abstract
Recent apprehensions over the poor performance of secondary schools at ordinary level in Tanzania have given rise to concerns over the quality of education provided at this level. Addressing the issue of poor performance requires a gargantuan understanding of the environment under which these schools operate. This study explored how management of school internal mechanisms contributed toward enhancement of school performance for improved quality of secondary education in Tanzania. The article reports on the findings of a comparative case study conducted in six secondary schools in the Eastern Education zone of Tanzania. Findings revealed that, performance of schools was mainly attributed to the kind of management available in a particular school, which will ensure availability of workable and agreed on mechanisms of providing effective teaching and learning. The findings provide several important implications for education and school practitioners on how best to manage school internal mechanisms for improved performance.
Highlights
Concerns on improved performance in secondary schools are heightening and are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore due to its overall contribution in the success of schools and social-economic development of any country
Eastern zone was purposively selected, based on data obtained from the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA), which showed that the Eastern zone was one of the zones that had large schools with the best and worst results in the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE)
Information and data obtained through interviews with heads of schools and focus group discussions with teachers and students revealed that 60% of the respondents were aware of their schools’ vision and how they were used to ensure enhanced academic performance
Summary
Concerns on improved performance in secondary schools are heightening and are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore due to its overall contribution in the success of schools and social-economic development of any country. Learner performance cannot be divorced from the wellmanaged schools. It is the responsibility of school managers to make schools work and improve the learning outcomes for children (Moloi, 2003). The trend of the performance reports for the past 5 years (2008-2012) from the Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations (CSEE) in Tanzania leave a lot of doubt on the effectiveness of school internal mechanisms to ensure high standards of performance. The uncertainties were increased by the manner in which the internal mechanisms were managed for effective teaching and learning in secondary schools in Tanzania. The CSEE results indicate that the performance of students who scored Division I to III is far less than the percentage of students scoring Division IV and zero (Table 1)
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