Participation in school committees in monitoring primary school projects in the Nyang’hwale District in Tanzania

Abstract

School committees hold a central role in decision making on various issues about the development and delivery of primary education, including the monitoring of school projects. This study examined the participation of school committees in monitoring primary school projects in selected schools in Nyang’hwale District in the Geita Region. Specifically, the study determined the extent of school committee members’ participation in monitoring school projects and examined factors influencing the school committee’s participation in monitoring primary school projects. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 17 primary schools and 136 school committee members and key informants involved in the study. Data were collected through structured interviews using a structured questionnaire, key informant interviews, and documentary review, and were analyzed for descriptive statistics, chi-square test and binary logistic regression. Results showed that most of the school committee members participated in project identification and planning, but less in budgeting activities. The main factors that influenced the participation of school committees were their perceived ability to speak up in meetings, their willingness to participate and their source of information. It was concluded that school committees’ participation in monitoring school projects was limited and constrained by gender imbalance. Thus, there is a need for capacity building for school committees to enhance their capacity for their roles and responsibilities.