Assessment of Factors Contributing to Girls' School Attendance
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ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO GIRLS’ SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE ON FORM FOUR NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS IN MBEYA REGION, TANZANIA FIELD PRACTICUM REPORT By GRACE ALOYCE KIHOMBO COMMITTEE MEMBERS DR. SUSAN PAULSON CHAIR DR. ANDREW NOSS MEMBER MASTER OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FALL, 2017 © 2017 GRACE ALOYCE KIHOMBO DEDICATION To My Family ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Primarily I am grateful to our Lord God for his blessings and grace. Indeed, God has been good through all the period of my studies. Also, I would like to thank the Salvation Army organization’s team (Mr. & Mrs. Horwood and Mr. Mkami) for accepting me to conduct the study. My deepest thanks to the whole team of Itundu secondary school for arranging my accommodation. I would like to thank my committee members Dr. Susan Paulson and Dr. Andrew Noss for agreeing to supervise my work and for their valuable inputs in the whole process of developing the proposal and finally the report. I would also like to thank Dr. Glenn Galloway for the constructive support in developing the proposal of this report through the Sustainable Development Design and Methods Course. In addition, my special thanks to Dr. Charles Bwenge, my Graduate Teaching Assistant director in African Languages, for being helpful and supportive in making my learning and teaching environment smooth. Finally, my sincere thanks to my lovely husband Dr. Newton Kilasi, and my daughters Angel and Alice for their valuable support and understanding. Thanks to everyone who participated in one way or another in the whole process of developing this report. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. 7 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... 8 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ......................................................................................... 10 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 11 1.2 Statement of the issue ....................................................................................... 14 1.3. Researcher experience and interest in the study .............................................. 15 (i) Experience as a female student .................................................................... 15 (ii) Experience as a female teacher ................................................................... 16 1.4 General objective. .............................................................................................. 16 1.5 Significance of the study .................................................................................... 17 1.6 Scope and context of the study .......................................................................... 18 1.7 Host organization ............................................................................................... 20 1.8 Conceptual Framework ...................................................................................... 20 Inputs ................................................................................................................. 21 Process ............................................................................................................. 21 Outputs .............................................................................................................. 21 Outcomes .......................................................................................................... 22 1.9 Organization of the study ................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER TWO: Factors affecting school attendance and academic performance in Tanzania .................................................................................................................. 24 2.1. Household poverty ............................................................................................ 26 2.2. Long distance to school .................................................................................... 26 2.3 Pregnancy .......................................................................................................... 27 2.4 Cultural practices ............................................................................................... 28 2.5 Cell phones and consumer desires .................................................................... 29 2.6 Lack of role models ............................................................................................ 29 2.7 School infrastructure and staffing ...................................................................... 29 2.8 Problem tree analysis ........................................................................................ 32 2.9 Ways to improve school attendance and performance ...................................... 34 Abolition of school fees in Primary and Secondary education .......................... 34 Building secondary schools in each ward ......................................................... 34 5 CHAPTER THREE: Methods ......................................................................................... 36 3.1 Scope of the study ....................................................................................... 36 3.2 Research design ......................................................................................... 36 3.3 Sampling ..................................................................................................... 37 3.4 Data collection methods and instruments. .................................................. 38 3.5 Ethical considerations. ................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER FOUR: Results and discusion. ..................................................................... 41 4.1 Comparison of school attendance and academic performance among girls and boys ................................................................................................. 41 4.2 Factors affecting school attendance and academic performance among girls ................................................................................................................. 43 Institutional or national factors .................................................................... 44 School factors ............................................................................................. 47 Family factors .............................................................................................. 49 Students’ individual factors. ........................................................................ 52 4.3. What can be done to improve girls’ academic performance and school attendance? ................................................................................................... 54 Institutional or national factors. ................................................................... 54 School factors ............................................................................................. 57 Family factors .............................................................................................. 58 Students’ individual factors ......................................................................... 60 4.4. Which stakeholders can improve girls’ school attendance and academic performance? ................................................................................. 61 CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusions and recommendations ................................................... 64 5.1 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 64 Areas for further research ........................................................................... 67 5.2 Recommendations ...................................................................................... 67 Institutional or national recommendations .................................................. 67 School recommendations ........................................................................... 68 Family recommendations ............................................................................ 69 Students’ individual recommendations ....................................................... 69 References ..................................................................................................................... 70 Appendix 1: Interview Questions for Students ............................................................... 74 Appendix 2: Interview Questions for Teachers. .............................................................. 75 Appendix 3: Interview Questions for Parents ................................................................. 77 Appendix 4: Focus group discussion questions for students, teachers and parents ...... 78 6 LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1. Barriers to education and the gender dimension in developing countries ........ 25 Table 2. Number of secondary students in 2016 ............................................................ 32 Table