Parents And Teachers’ Roles In Promoting Reading Habits Among Secondary School Students In Tanzania: A Case Of Busokelo District

ABSTRACT

The study examined the roles of parents and teachers in promoting reading habits among students in secondary schools in Tanzania, following the general cry that reading habits had declined in secondary education. Mixed method approach was used, that is to say both Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches were used. A stratified random sampling method was used to select the 200 students from 10 schools to participate in the study while, purposive sampling was used to get 15 teachers, 20 parents and 5 school librarians. Questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussion and documentary review were used in data collect data from respondents. The major findings were that parents and teachers did very little to promote reading habit among the students. Only 38.5% of parents played their role in activities such as buying reading books, making follow up on students‟ home reading and school progress, checking students‟ exercise books in which they would keep their reading notes and summaries. The situation was that there was a tragic decline in the reading habit among the students in secondary schools, such that 65.4% of students read more pamphlets than text books only for passing examination and depended very much on teachers notes as the only source of knowledge. In addition, it was found that only three out of the ten schools surveyed had the so called libraries. Based on the findings, major recommendations are that Schools Inspectorate Unit should regularly inspect the schools, regular workshops and seminars to teachers on pedagogies, instigation of ParentsTeachers Associations from school level to national level to create great awareness of their roles, and that the government should build libraries, provide relevant books and recruit school librarians.