The effectiveness of the government fund for orphaned and vulnerable children in secondary schools: the case of Morogoro Municipal and Mvomero District Councils, Tanzania
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Date
2011
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
In 2003 the Government started a scholarship grant to support pupils from low income
households (orphans and vulnerable children - OVC) to access secondary education.
Though the fund has been operational for a long time, not much has been documented
about the effectiveness of the support especially in Morogoro Region. The overall
objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the Government Fund to OVC in
secondary schools in Morogoro Municipal and Mvomero District Councils. Three
schools were involved in this study namely Kilakala, Morogoro and Mzumbe Secondary
Schools. Questionnaires were administered to 75 students from the schools, 17
parents/guardians and 15 key informants. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS). The main results were that: there were a good number of
vulnerable students (32%) though the majority of the students were orphans (68%) and
that most of them were living with their mothers; data for applicants in wards/districts
showed that only about 24% of the applicants got the government support; in the schools,
only about 49% of the orphans and vulnerable students in all the three schools were
supported by this fund and the amounts given were not adequate to meet students’ needs
compared to when their parent(s) were alive; OVC got information about the fund mainly
from their Head Teachers while only 3% got information through the media; knowledge
about the fund as well as the mechanism to select students for scholarship award was
generally limited; about 53% and 41% of key informants and parents/guardians
respectively indicated that the mechanism to select OVC for scholarship award was
transparent; there was low participation of students (15%) in matters related to fund
distribution; about 94% of the parents/guardians indicated that the scholarship funds were
The following are the main recommendation of this study: the Govemment/District and
not targeting the poor; and lastly, all students indicated that fund disbursement was late. Municipal Councils should increase the fund to support OVC as the number of OVC is
increasing every year; there should be more transparency about the fund. To increase
transparency, the following should be published in newspapers, Government notice boards
and websites: criteria to award grants, amount of fund available and lists of selected
students. Lastly, fund management should be improved by timely disbursement of money
to students.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Government fund, Vulnerable children, Morogoro municipal, Mvomero district councils, Low income households, Orphans-vulnerable children - OVC