Challenges Facing Community Involvement in Students’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools: Evidence from Mtwara District Council, Tanzania

Abstract

This study examined the challenges facing community involvement in students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Mtwara District Council. Working within a pragmatic paradigm, the study adopted a mixed-methods approach and a descriptive design. Five community secondary schools were selected by systematic random sampling from the 21 community secondary schools in the district. Questionnaires were completed by 85 school-level respondents (45 students, 20 teachers, and 20 school committee members), and interviews were held with 15 education officials (5 district secondary education officers, 5 ward education officers, and 5 heads of school), giving 100 participants in total. Quantitative data were analysed using frequencies and percentages, while interview data were analysed thematically. Among school-level respondents, the challenges most widely endorsed were lack of parental involvement in children’s education (78.8%), insufficient communication between schools and communities (71.8%), and conflict between the school timetable and students’ household responsibilities (62.4%). Cultural differences (58.8%) and limited school resources (55.3%) attracted narrower majorities. Of the four challenges put to officials in comparable terms, communication, cultural difference, and timetable conflict were confirmed almost unanimously, but only 3 of the 15 accepted limited resources, and all 5 heads of school rejected it. Interview accounts located the communication problem in a specific accountability gap: communities are told when funds arrive but are not told how they were spent, and no district secondary education officer reported that communities give feedback on school policy. The study concludes that the challenge the evidence specifies most fully is the weakness of two-way accountability between schools and the communities that support them, and it recommends structured reporting to parents on the use of school funds alongside scheduling arrangements that accommodate students’ household obligations.