Parents’ Involvement In Supporting Literacy Skills Development To Pre-Primary School Children In Tanzania

ABSTRACT

This study investigated parents’ involvement in supporting literacy skills development to pre-primary school children in Tanzania. The study employed Epstein’s Theory of Parental Involvement. The study was conducted in Butiama district in Mara region, involving 32 parents: 19 males and 13 females. It employed purposive and snowball sampling techniques to obtain respondents. Furthermore, the study employed case study research design in which participatory observation and unstructured interview were used to obtain the data. The findings were analyzed thematically, resulting into different sub-themes that were used to address the objectives of this study.

The study results revealed that parents had contributions that were supporting literacy skills development and academic success to pre-primary school pupils. Such contributions are such as buying learning and playing materials, supporting school children’s homework at home and attending school-parent meetings. It was also revealed that the availability of learning materials, such as reading and drawing materials, supported the literacy skills development to pre-primary school pupils. It was again found that there were some barriers that denied the parents to the opportunity to involve in supporting literacy skills development to preprimary school pupils. Such barriers are such as economic activities, parent level of education, parent limited literacy skills and resources. The study recommended that parents should be educated by the school administration on the importance of literacy to their children so that they can support their children when at home, also the MoEVT and Butiama district council should increase teaching/ learning facilities supplies supplied in pre-primary schools of the study location in order to improve literacy performance.