Factors contributing to low literacy among primary school pupils: a case of Mkuranga District, Tanzania
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Date
2015
Authors
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
A cross sectional study was carried in Mkuranga District, Pwani Region to find out the
parents, teachers and pupils factors influencing low literacy in primary schools. Random
sampling was used in selecting the study district from Pwani Region. The technique was
then used to select 150 pupils from five randomly selected schools in three wards.
Through snowballing sampling, pupils were used to obtain 150 parents/guardians.
Purposive sampling was employed to select 42 teachers as all are directly concerned with
pupils’ literacy matters. Primary data were collected by means of semi-structured
questionnaires. Secondary data were collected by review of related written materials.
Descriptive statistics by use of frequencies and percentages were used to analyse the
parental and teachers based factors while binary logistic regression was used to assess
pupils’ based factors affecting literacy. Results showed that about 28.5% of parent based
cases reported poor interaction with teachers on academic matters, lack of support on
pupils’ homework (21.1%) and poor follow-up on pupil’s academic progress (16.7%). The
highly reported cases by teachers included lack of teaching facilities (32, 5%) and high
pupil-teacher ratios (32.2%). Results of binary logistic model revealed that the main pupils
factors affecting literacy are truancy, inadequacy coverage of supplementary reading
materials, and sex by which girls were 82.5% more affected than boys (p-value<0.1). The
study recommends a high need of extension on teacher-parent interaction on pupils’
academic matters and, more government academic provisions, as well as teachers’
involvement in curricula changes. Factors leading to truancy should be highly campaigned
against and finally, pupils themselves should ensure large coverage of the required reading
materials when provided by educational stakeholders.
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Keywords
primary school pupils, Mkuranga District, Low literacy, Tanzania