Contribution Of School Management Committees In Quality Improvement Of Primary Education: The Case Of Shinyanga District In Tanzania

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which School management committees (SMCs) influence quality improvement of the overall school performance of primary schools in Shinyanga district. The study employed a qualitative approach using comparative case studies. A total of 75 respondents from three schools were purposely selected and involved in the study. The instruments used were semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and documentary review. The conceptual framework used was adopted from Stafflebeam, the CIPP model. Two theories; the General Systems Theory (GST) and the Total Quality Management (TQM) theory were also used together with the model. The study found that to a large extent SMCs are aware of their roles, despite the fact that 33% of the members did not get any training. It was found that the organs are not aware of the planning responsibility. It was found that the committees manage most of basic activities responsive in quality improvement. However; SMCs‟ performance was found to differ from one school to another, depending on the head teacher‟s leadership skills, resources the school possess and community participation. The study found that despite the good job done by the committees; the schools still almost solely depend on the government for funds to sustain the needs of their schools. The study concludes that, SMCs influence quality improvement but not satisfactorily. Nevertheless, the organs play a fundamental role in school management in general and quality improvement in particular. The study recommends that there should be interventions, in training of SMCs and monitoring their functioning so that they can fully understand and play their roles in improving quality.