Browsing by Author "Nyamonge Kenya"

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Beyond access: which factors shape secondary school students’ academic performance under Tanzania’s fee- free education policy?
(The Sub Saharan Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2026-03) Optatus M. Semindu; Michael Kadigi; Nyamonge Kenya
Tanzania’s Fee-Free Education Policy (FFEP) has dramatically expanded secondary school access since 2015, yet persistent concerns about educational quality persist. The rapid enrollment surge has strained school systems, but empirical evidence on how school management, teacher factors, resource availability, and household characteristics interact to influence student achievement remains limited. This study investigates the multidimensional determinants of academic performance in Tanzanian public secondary schools under FFEP. Employing a cross-sectional analytical design, data were collected from 239 randomly selected students (Forms 1-4) across 12 public secondary schools in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania. Twenty-four educators (12 head teachers and 12 academic teachers) participated in semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using chi-square tests and binary logistic regression in STATA v18, while qualitative data underwent thematic analysis. Binary logistic regression revealed that consistent student attendance (OR=3.60, p<0.01), sustained parental involvement (OR=3.25, p<0.01), strong administrative accountability (OR=2.86, p<0.01), supportive school leadership (OR=2.77, p<0.01), adequate teacher availability (OR=2.59, p<0.01), access to supplementary materials (OR=2.27, p<0.05), quality infrastructure (OR=2.05, p<0.05), and appropriate teacher qualifications (OR=1.97, p<0.05) independently predicted satisfactory performance. The model explained 45% of performance variance (Pseudo R²=0.45). Qualitative findings elucidated how resource shortages, class sizes of 120-140 students, excessive workloads, and limited professional development constrain instructional effectiveness. Academic performance under FFEP depends on synergistic alignment of multiple system components rather than isolated factors. Student attendance and parental involvement emerged as strongest predictors, highlighting that access expansion alone cannot compensate for household-level engagement deficits. This study provides novel empirical evidence quantifying the relative strength of eight key predictors within an expanded- access policy context, advancing theoretical understanding of how misalignment between enrollment growth and resource provisioning creates quality constraints. FFEP has successfully expanded access, but sustainable quality improvements require integrated interventions addressing teacher support, infrastructure proportional to enrollment growth, parental engagement, and attendance promotion. Policy reforms should prioritize: (1) increased capitation grants with timely disbursement; (2) accelerated infrastructure development aligned with enrollment growth; (3) enhanced teacher motivation through incentives and professional development; (4) strengthened school-level administrative autonomy; and (5) inclusive parental engagement strategies accommodating economically constrained families.
Bridging access and quality: community perceptions of educational excellence under Tanzania's fee- free secondary education policy
(African Journal of Empirical Research, 2026-03) Optatus Martin Semindu; Michael Kadigi; Nyamonge Kenya
Community perceptions play a critical role in the effective implementation of educational policies, particularly in resource-constrained urban contexts such as Tanzania, where rapid policy expansion can strain institutional capacity. Guided by socio-ecological theory and informed by the human capital perspective, this study examined multilevel factors shaping community perceptions of the Fee-Free Education Policy (FFEP) and its influence on perceived educational quality in public secondary schools in urban Tanzania. The socioecological framework conceptualizes educational outcomes as interactions among individual, relational, institutional, and community-level factors. A convergent mixed-methods design was employed, combining quantitative data from 239 students analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with qualitative insights from 20 semi-structured interviews with head teachers and academic staff. The measurement model demonstrated strong reliability and validity, while the structural model explained 26.1% of the variance in perceived educational quality (R² = 0.261). The results revealed that parental involvement (β = 0.322, p < 0.001) and community material contributions (β = 0.252, p < 0.001) were the strongest predictors of perceived educational quality, highlighting the central role of relational and organizational dynamics. In contrast, socioeconomic status (β = 0.110, p = 0.252) and policy awareness (β = 0.092, p = 0.116) did not show significant direct effects. Qualitative findings contextualized and extended these results through four key themes: the access quality paradox, socioeconomic constraints as structural mediators of parental involvement, leadership variability as a critical implementation moderator, and the unmet expectations narrative reflecting gaps between policy promises and implementation realities. These insights reveal that socioeconomic conditions influence educational quality indirectly through parental engagement and resource contributions, while leadership practices and resource constraints shape the effectiveness of policy implementation. The study concludes that improving educational quality under the FFEP requires moving beyond policy awareness toward strengthening community engagement mechanisms, enhancing resource mobilization, and addressing systemic capacity constraints. Building adaptive school leadership, aligning policy communication with implementation realities, and establishing continuous monitoring systems are essential for sustaining both equity and quality. The findings underscore the importance of participatory, system-oriented approaches that integrate community involvement into school-level governance to support sustainable educational outcomes in rapidly expanding education systems.