Effectiveness of Secondary School Boards in Managing Students’ Discipline among Public Secondary Schools in Ulanga District, Morogoro Tanzania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of secondary school boards in managing students’ discipline among public secondary schools in Ulanga District, Tanzania. The study employed mixed research approach and convergent parallel research design. The researcher used stratified sampling and simple random sampling methods to select 75 out of 298 teachers and 76 out of 324 student leaders. Purposive sampling was used to select one (1) District Education Officer, one (1) Standard Quality Assurer, one (1) Ward Education Officer, four (4) Heads of Schools and four (4) Chairpersons of School Boards. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview guides and documents. Data was analyzed through descriptive statistics and thematic approach. The study revealed that although school boards discussed discipline issues in public secondary schools, they did not take any appropriate disciplinary action such as discontinuing students with disciplinary issues, warning or suspend the students. The study recommended that apart from discussing about disciplinary issues, school boards should take appropriate disciplinary actions such as suspending discontinuing and giving warnings to the students with disciplinary issues. It is recommended that the school boards should ensure constant communication with disciplinary committees to maintain students’ discipline in schools. The study further recommended that the government should enhance budgetary allocations to the schools for better effectiveness of discipline management. The Heads of schools and board members should be trained on effective leadership and the parents should be educated on the importance of cooperation in managing students’ discipline in public secondary schools.