QUESTION NO. 5: SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION i. Draw the organizational structure of the administration and management of Tanzania’s Education system ii. What is the role of MoEVT and PMO-RALG (TAMISEMI)? iii. What are the main responsibilities of the iv. v. • Minister of Education • Permanent Secretary • Regional Educational Officer • Ward Education Officer Discuss the importance of the following parastatals which work under the MoEVT • NECTA • TIE Discuss the typical school administration in Tanzania and show the roles played by each person/various groups. Abriviations MOEC: Ministry of Education and Culture PMO-RALG: Prime Minister’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government 1 MoEVT : Ministry of Education and Vocational Training ESDC - Education Sector Development Committee MOFEA - Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs Figure 1: Structure of Administration and Management of Tanzania’s Education system MINISTER Education Sector [PMO-RALG] MINISTER MINISTER [MoEVT] [MOFEA] Permanent Secretary [MOEVT] Permanent Secretary [MOFEA] Development Committee (ESDC) Permanent Secretary [PMO-RALG] Director Commissioner Director Chief Administration of Education Policy & Planning Accountant Direct or Direc tor Sector Adult / Non Coord inatio n Form al Educ ation Director Technica l& Vocation al Direc tor Direc tor Directo r Directo r Prim ary Seco ndary Inspect orate Teacher Educ ation Educ ation Treasury Director Director s of Higher Educati on Educatio n 2 Educatio n Instituti ons Regional Secretariat Regional Education Officer District Council Ward Executive Officer Sub-Treasury District Secondary Education Officer Ward Education Officer Village/Mtaa Government Secondary School Boards Head of School / Secondary School Accounts School Management Team Source: MoEVT, 2010. ii. The role of MoEVT and PMO-RALG (TAMISEMI) (a). The role of MoEVT The president of the United Republic of Tanzania issued a notice of assignment of ministerial responsibilities vide Government notice No. 494 of 17 th December, 2010. In the instrument, the president has created the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) which is mandated for formulation, monitoring, and evaluation of the implication policies, teachers training, registration of schools, inspection of education services and infrastructure, library services and education press services (MoEVT, 2010). 3 The vision of the Ministry states as: “a well-educated, knowledgeable and skilled Tanzanian able to competently and competitively cope with political, social, cultural, economic and technological development challenges at national and international levels” (MoEVT, 2010). On the other hand, the mission of the MoEVT is to develop and implement education policies, which provides equal opportunity to quality education to all Tanzanians and ensure development of a productive quality human resource base through education and training (MoEVT, 2010). The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) has got different roles. The following are some of those roles (PMO-RALG, 2011): It deals with enrolment expansion of both Primary and Secondary education through Primary and Secondary Education Development Programmes. Now days, there is a large number of students enrolling in both Primary and Secondary Schools though the number of teachers seem to be few not match with the number of students. Considering this challenge, the Ministry develops and implements progrmmes of expanding enrolment in teachers training institutions, vocational technical and higher education. The aim of the programme is to make balance between the number of students and teachers in the school. MoEVT make a research, monitoring and evaluation. The ministry conducts and uses the findings for informed decision making. The ministry needs to strength monitoring and evaluation of its education policies, guidelines and curricula in order to make informed decision during the review process. The ministry also needs to make research for example about curricula to use whether are suitable for users or not. If not, the ministry has to find the strategies to make the curricula stable and clear to improve the quality of education service delivery in the country. 4 Quality assurance is another role played by MoEVT. The function of administration of primary and secondary school education is decentralized to Local Government Authorities (LGAs). This is because the ministry cannot evaluate itself in front of others. Through this, the ministry can produce education which is more quality to the people, society and National at large. It is therefore recommended for the ministry to put in place mechanism for strengthening the quality assurance and regulatory organs so as to ensure that education is provided in accordance with the set of standards. On the other hand, the ministry makes inspection of education services and infrastructure. The ministry makes sure that the subjects are taught, students are enrolled, teachers are in the working station, schools have enough classrooms, toilets, libraries, laboratories, and other essential school components. The ministry ensures the assessment and evaluation of students are made. Therefore in order to accommodate all these, the ministry has to be accountable effectively. (b). The role of PMO-RALG On the other side, the Prime Minister’s office – Regional Administration and Local Government was re-established in 2005. Initially, the office was under President’s Office. The decision of placing responsibilities RALG to PMO was to ensure the close monitoring of day to day activities executed by Local Government Authority. In 2008, the government decided to transfer responsibilities of supervision and coordination of secondary school to Local Government Authority. Therefore, the office is responsible to the following functions (PMORALG, 2011): 5 To coordinate and supervise the delivery of pre-primary, primary and secondary education service; this help to create enabling environment to provide education and allocating various duties in the region for all levels of education. It also, enables to plan the provision and the supervision of education to ensure the cooperation, teamwork and common purpose to improve the provision of education in the country. To monitor and evaluate administration and management of pre-primary, primary and secondary education services; this needs development and sharing information in policy making, legislation preparation and roles to guide education in different levels of education. Also help to monitor all works which done and evaluate the performance of duties which are directed to all levels of education. To oversee and take remedial measures on management and administration of preprimary, primary and secondary education service; in order to improve education in schools, there is a need to assess the management and administration to ensure that different measures are taken to improve performance. They make sure that all resources and other materials which needed in the school are available and objectives planned are reached according to the time. To create, update and maintain database on pre-primary, primary and secondary education services which show clear management system from national level to school level. It helps to assess all duties and responsibilities of teachers. iii. Responsibility of; (a). Minister of Education To guide the reform of education and teaching methods; If there is a change in education, the minister supposed to inform the education institutions about the changes made, for example, the change of the syllabus and make sure that all teachers use different teaching methods in the 6 class to meet the objectives of the changes made during teaching and learning process (MoEVT,2008). Creating list of appropriate text books and other learning resources; in education institution. The minister of education suppose to mention and give out the list the list of textbooks that are needed according to the level of learners and to create good teaching and learning materials (MoEVT,2008). To coordinate between the state departments and UNESCO for cooperation in education, science and technology, culture and other areas; this fact that the minister of education and vocational training takes a role for take change of the liaison of the state departments with the UNESCO secretariat and relevant institution (MoEVT,2008). (b). Permanent Secretary Most of the senior civil servants in a department are non political figures. This means that, Permanent Secretary is not a political figure; he or she is a professional in the field. They hold their position for a number of years at a ministry as distinct from the changing political secretaries’ state to which they repot and provide advice. Their roles involve the following; Accounting officers for departments; it means that they make sure the departments spend money granted appropriately and thus money can be used in a good way for making some changes in a specific department (MoEVT, 2008). They usually chair a department’s management board which consists of executive members and non executive direct leading a department. They lead the department effective and manage and control their department and its civil servant (MoEVT, 2008). (c). Regional Educational Officer (REO’s) 7 Regional Educational Officer (REO’s), is non political figure, who is a teacher by professional. He or she performs the following responsibilities; Enhancing school development; in education institution, the Regional Educational Officer is responsible to facilitating schools to implement school management which influencing schools development plans (MoEVT, 2008). To manage the entrance examination for academic credentials for higher education and the administration of records of students enrolment, status and drawing up the employment policies for college and universities graduate (MoEVT, 2008). Regional Educational Officer is also provide the information to citizens, it means that the Regional Educational Officers are suppose to give out an information about the state and local programmes that meet their needs (MoEVT, 2008). (d). Ward Educational Officer He or she also the teacher by professional and he or she perform the following responsibilities; Identification of areas for the construction of schools; they are responsible in surveying and identifying areas which can be easily for building a schools. In making decision, the ward education officer must cooperate with the community to get their redness before the programme. He or she mobilize communities’ resources (financial and physical) for construction of school; He or she is responsible to emphasize the the community to contribute the financial and physical support that is needed to build new schools (MoEVT, 2008). Reviewing school development plans, budget and implementation reports; they take charge of receiving development plans that take place and all budgets and after receiving the report, they make sure that they send them to the District educational Officer (MoEVT, 2008). 8 Reviewing and consolidating requests from village government for students to be supported under government scholarship scheme and submit the request to Local Government Authority (LGA) for consideration (MoEVT, 2008). iv. The importance of: (a). National Education Council of Tanzania (NECTA) The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) is the government institution established by the parliamentary act No. 2 of 1963. NECTA is responsible for administration of all national examinations in Tanzania, provision of certificates for primary, secondary and college institutions. The decision to establish NECTA was a follow-up of an earlier move in April 1971, when Tanzania mainland pulled out of East Africa Examination Council (EAEC) to conduct her own examinations (MoEC, 1995). NECTA is running its functions under MoVT. The following are some of the importance of NECTA: It helps in the implementation of the curriculum. This is by evaluating and assessing the expected outcomes of curriculum designed and hence provides educational awards such as Certificate for Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) and Advanced Certificate for Secondary Education Examination (ACSEE) (MoEC, 1995). It helps in passes through reports and reviewers opinions. This is done by ongoing curriculum development and evaluation and hence to provide important comments to Tanzania Institute of Education for some changes in syllabus. For example; NECTA receive comments from other bodies of person reports or other materials affecting examination policy and from time to time to consider and review national examinations policy as circumstances may require (MoEC, 1995). 9 It interprets Tanzania curriculum with foreign curriculum. This help in supervising foreign examination to learners from Tanzania and foreigners. For example, NECTA is a body that facilitates to administer and supervise foreign examinations in Tanzania. It is also responsible for setting administration, marking, publishing and certification of primary and secondary education and for colleges’ institutions (MoEC, 1995). Help the learners to make self assessment and reflection on the learning process. This help students to gain experience in doing examinations and then improve the development of creativity, thinking skills and confidence in attempting examinations and foster their memorization (MoEC, 1995). (b) Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) is a national curriculum development center. It is a public institution under the Ministry of Educational and Vocational Training (MoEVT) changed with the responsibility of interpreting government policies to curriculum and instructional materials in order to insure the provision of quality education and its core values are to deliver quality service to its client efficiently and effectively. However, TIE perform the following important roles; Help to prepare curriculum materials such as teaching and learning materials which are used by senior officials, university lectures, educational officials from MoEVT, Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Authority (MoRALA), Regional and District Educational Officers, examiners, school and college inspectors, directors and managers, and curriculum developers. However, other stakeholders such as teachers, tutors, parents, donor agencies, government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) dealing with educational issues may use this curriculum (MoEVT, 2008). 10 It improves the standard of resources required for implementation of the curriculum. The Tanzania Institute of Education should ensure that appropriate infrastructure, facilities, equipments, instructional materials and teachers needed for optimum implementation of the curriculum are available by setting the standard, providing the fund, design of the standard for paper and effective implementation of the ordinary secondary curriculum shall be guided by the list of indicators, teachers requirement, school leadership qualities, physical facilities, and facility for learners with disabilities (MoEVT, 2008). Help in monitoring and evaluation of curricula materials. This consist a systematic information gathering and making some kind of judgment on the bases of information. Monitoring and evaluation of structure set up within school as well as nationally will enable all teachers to participate in these processes and contribute to the students continuo’s improvement of the national curriculum. The agencies of monitoring are school inspectors, NECTA, TIE, MoEVT, subjects associations and school boards (MoEVT, 2008). v. The administrative system in Tanzania’s schools is in hierarchical form and the positions are healed according to the professional skills acquired by each person. Prof. Kapuya (1997), explains the role played by each person in the structure of school administrations system in Tanzania as follow; The Head of the School The prime role of the head of school is to provide academic and administrative leadership to his or her institution (school). The quality of what is done in the school is attributed by the head of the school. These roles involves supervision of teachers service and insuring discipline, 11 observing and improving teaching and learning in the school, supervise the utilization of school funds and infrastructure through effective planning, budgeting revenue generation and expenditure control. Other roles include planning, reviewing and monitoring the implementation of the curriculum. However, he or she is the secretary of the school board and the one who is incharge of every detail of running the school (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). School Board The school board is the board made by the members of the community. The board is accountable to the community they save. The role of school board involve making policies that guides the school administration and employees towards district goal, setting the ethical standards of the school and monitor adherence to them and monitoring the organizational performance. Other roles are making decision regarding to the health and safety of the students, and adopting an annual budget for the school system. School boards are therefore, the watchdog for their communities, ensuring that students get the best education (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). Deputy Head of School The Deputy Head of school is acting as an assistant or subordinate to the head of school. They can have teaching roles but very small due to the following roles; they assist the head of school in some areas of administration, staff appraisal and discipline. They are also concern with coordinating daily activities of the school. However, the deputy head of school is the chairperson of discipline committee (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). 12 Academic Master or Mistress Academic master or mistress is the one who suppose to advise the head of school on all matters relating to academic issues. He or she has to coordinate all academic activities in the school, and register students in national examinations including certificate of secondary school examination and form two secondary school education examinations (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). Discipline Master or Mistress The discipline master or mistress always deals with discipline matters concerning students’ disciplinary cases. The school discipline master or mistress is the secretary of discipline committee; they provide guidance and counseling to students, and provide guidelines for students discipline (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). Students Government The students’ government includes head prefect head girl, and others prefects as the need of the school. These leaders at least should have ability to provide advice, have friendly manner and be able to make public speech and being able to work within a team effectively. The role of students’ government includes creating a link between teachers and students, developing positive relationships with students and staff. Head prefect and head girl represents the school at event when required, lead other prefects to perform their duties, and organize the minutes of the meeting to be taken and distributed. Class Teacher A class teacher is a person with teaching professionalism. He or she is responsible for maintaining complete and accurate academic records of each student (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). For 13 example, students performance, registering students in attendance register and conducting daily roll-call and making follow up for absents and helping students during difficulties Maintenance Teacher This is the person who is responsible for maintaining the condition and situation of the physical infrastructural facilities. Maintenance teacher is responsible for the rehabilitations of the school buildings, furniture and keeping general school environment like planting trees and flowers at school surroundings. Departments It can be referred to a part, portion or subdivisions. In secondary school organization, there are departments which compose different subjects such as language department, science department, Art department and Business department. The basic role of these departments is to ensure that each department has enough teaching and learning resources and subjects concerned are well taught. Head of Subjects Departments These are teachers who are very competent to the subjects concerned in each department. Some of their role involves; formulating and monitoring the planning, development and performance of the department, conducting departmental staff meeting for moderating examination especially terminal and annual examinations conducted in the school, maintaining appropriate development records for his or her department and evaluating the department progress (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). 14 Students Students are responsible to attend the class for active learning and attempting the task given by teachers. They are required to attend for full duration of each term and follow school rules and regulations as well as school daily routine activities. School Accountant A school accountant is responsible to manage the finance of the school by balancing, budgeting, acquiring funds and supplies, paying bills and keeping school financial records. In order to maintain solid financial standing, the school needs a very careful, competent and committed school accountant (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). Subject Teachers They are professional people (teachers) who are responsible to teach lessons and other behavior to students, monitoring and reviewing progress of students their subjects, setting of examinations and tests and grading and providing results to students on time (Prof. Kapuya, 1997). Other Non Teaching Staff These are personnel who are performing different activities in the school such as creating services, maintaining school security, making cleanliness and cooking. See the structure of school administration bellow; THE STRUCTURE OF THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION Head of School 15 School board Deputy head of school Academic Discipline Student teacher teacher counselor of Departments Accountants Heads of subject Maintenance Other departments teacher teaching staff Heads departments non- Class teachers Students government Students Source: Prof. Kapuya, 1997. REFERENCES MoEC (1995). Education Training Policy. Dar es salaam. MoEVT (2010). Education Sector Development Programme: Secondary Education Development Programme II (July 2010 – June 2015). Dar es salaam. 16 MoEVT (2008). Development of Education in Tanzania (Official Report). Dar es salaam PMO-RALG (2011). Strategic Plan 2011/12-2015/16. Dar es salaam. 17