Availability of Instructional Resources for Quality Education in Public Secondary Schools of Karatu District, Tanzania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of teachers on the availability of instructional resources for quality education among Public Secondary Schools in Karatu District. The study used the descriptive design. It employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches in the sense that both closed ended and open -ended instruments were used to gather data from respondents. A sample size of 237 teacher respondents was determined using the Yamani’s mathematical formulae. Data were collected using questionnaires, interview schedule and documents. Based on the findings, the study concluded that there is inadequate number of teachers especially for science subjects in the schools investigated. The inadequate number of teachers caused the workload to exceed the one required by the policy in a class. Secondly, schools missed reference books and specific subject did not have adequate number of textbooks. Furthermore, schools missed modern facilities like computers and projectors for use during the teaching and learning process. Based on conclusions, the study recommended a need for education administrators to ensure that schools are supplied with adequate number of teachers for each subject. This will reduce teachers’ workloads and enable teachers to spend much of their time with students, helping them to reach their full potentials. Furthermore, there is a need for the government of Tanzania through relevant authorities to look for means to increase the number of required reference books and textbooks.