Fostering Structured Play: Challenges and Solutions for School Administrators in Government Pre-Primary Schools of Longido and Monduli Districts, Tanzania (Published)
This study examined the challenges school administrators face in enhancing the implementation of Structured Play Activities in government pre-primary schools in Longido and Monduli Districts in Arusha Region in Tanzania and solutions to address the challenges. The study was guided by the systems theory proposed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in 1936. Convergent research design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data, which enabled the triangulation of collected information, thus giving a detailed understanding of the challenges and their solutions. The sample consisted of 268 participants who were obtained through stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. The instruments were validated by experts in the fields of research, administration, and early childhood education. Reliability was ensured using Cronbach alpha and triangulation techniques. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, while the qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated the challenges faced by school administrators in enhancing the implementation of SPA in government pre-primary schools, such as inadequate financial resources and scarcity of highly skilled educators. The study concluded that the implementation of SPA in government pre-primary schools is greatly impeded by financial limitations, which negatively affected the efforts to provide teaching and learning facilities appropriately. Additionally, the scarcity of highly skilled educators with expertise in pre-primary education presents a significant obstacle for administrators in the successful execution of organised play activities in government-run pre-primary schools in the districts of Longido and Monduli. To address these challenges, there is a need for the government to allocate a special budget for early childhood education, to employ qualified pre-primary teachers and to provide professional development to teachers.
Keywords: Challenges, Implementation, school administrators, solutions, structured play activities
Security Threat Eventuality: Strategies School Administrators Are Planning to Adopt in Delta State, Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated security threat eventuality: strategies school administrators are planning to adopt in Delta state, Nigeria. This inquiry was based on two research questions and two hypotheses, using the descriptive survey. The population consisted of 476 school administrators in Delta State, of whom 190 were selected through stratified sampling. A Security Threat Questionnaire (STQ) was used to gather information. Data obtained were coded and analysed using mean and standard deviation and a t-test to test formulated hypotheses at a .05 significance level. Findings revealed that security threats school administrators in Delta State are prone to include stealing among students, fighting, kidnapping of teachers and students, and destruction of school property by students, among others. Also, strategies school administrators are planning to adopt in the event of a security threat include contacting security operatives, encouraging students to report any security threat, and informing teachers and students to be more vigilant during school hours, among others. It was thus recommended amid others that school administrators should contact security operatives like the Nigerian Police Force, community police, or those who volunteered to keep the community and schools safe from any security threat.
Keywords: Delta State, Strategies., school administrators, security threat eventuality
Assessing Pre-primary Teachers’ Involvement in Decision Making in Tanzanian Public Pre-primary Schools: A Look of Implementation of Structured Play Activities in Longido and Monduli Districts (Published)
This study examines the extent to which school administrators involve pre-primary teachers in decision making related to implementation of structured play activities in Tanzanian government pre-primary schools where Longido and Monduli were used as study cases. Collegial Models of educational leadership and management developed by Tony Bush guided the study. The study adopted Convergent design of mixed methods approach. Sample of the study included 268 respondents where 34 were head teachers, 34 were academic teachers, 136 were internal school quality assurance team members, and 64 were pre-primary teachers who were obtained through stratification, purposive, and simple randomly respectively. Data were collected through structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and through inferential statistics while qualitative data were analysed thematically. Findings show that teachers’ involvement in school administrative decision making related to structured play activities is very low. Hypothesis testing shows existence of significant relationship between low level of teachers’ involvement in school administrative decision making and those teachers’ inadequate implementation of structured play activities in pre-primary classes. The study concludes that low level of implementing structured play activities by the pre-primary teachers is associated with low level of teachers’ involvement in school administrative decision making. The study recommends that administrators should involve pre-primary teachers in decision making so as to improve implementation of structured play activities.
Keywords: Instructional Leadership, decision making and structured play activities, instructional supervisor, school administrators