CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT IN THE MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATION AT THE GR(27)

In addition, the state of physical infrastructure continuously deteriorated and schools faced serious shortage of major supplies such as text books, chalk and exercise books. Many pupils learned in overcrowded and poorly furnished classrooms.

3.8.3 The liberalization era (1986-to date)
The Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) of the 1980s had adverse outcomes to the primary education in Tanzania. In their study, Lema et al (2004) observed that in 1999, out of every 100 children of primary school age, 56 were enrolled in schools; of 56 enrolled in schools; only 38 completed primary school. Of the 38 who completed primary school, only 6 proceeded to secondary schools. Moreover, there were significant differences in school enrolment according to location reflectingThe Assignment is provided by UK Assignment http://www.szdhsjt.com  regional, district, ethnic and urban-rural differences (Mukandala and Peter, 2004).

 However, some recent studies have shown evidence of considerable improvement in the status of primary education in Tanzania since 2001 as a result of the Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP) (United Republic of Tanzania, 2004). The improvements could be attributed to the government’s abolition of the school fees and mandatory cash contributions from parents (Lema, et al, 2004). For instance, the Net Enrolment Rates have increased from 59 percent in 2000 to 91 percent in 2003, and Gross Enrolment Rates have increased from 78 percent to 108 percent during the same period. The actual enrolment grew by 50 percent up from 4.4 million in 2000 to 6.6 million in 2003 (Lema et al, 2004).

3.9 Analytical framework   of the study
In the light of the reviewed literature, I developed a framework to guide my study. The basic assumption of the study is that: ‘Performance of the school committees depends on the extent to which they are empowered’. The study by Aedo (1998) shows the Chilean schools that have been conferred significant power to make decisions perform better than those under centralized control. In the same line, King and Ozler (2000) noted a positive effect of decentralization on parent participation in school decision-making in Nicaragua, while in on the other hand, Galiani, et. al .(2005) argue that decentralization of public schooling in Argentina in the early 1990’s helped to improve the quality of education in terms of  standardized test scores. However, it seems that the studies focused more on the academic performance of the schools, which is not my concern in this study. Academic performance of students is a multi-dimensional construct, that many not be attributed to the functioning of school committees alone but some other factors such as availability and quality of teachers, suitability of the teaching-learning environment, motivation of teachers and pupils and government policies.  In the proposed study, I intend to examine how the empowerment dimensions affect performance of the school committees by focusing on the administrative functions of the school committees such as resource mobilization, creation of infrastructure such as classrooms, planning and budgeting and finance. The reason behind this decision is that these responsibilities are specifically vested to the school committees at the local level under the educational decentralization system (United Republic of Tanzania, 2001); and therefore can easily be measured in a more direct way.