Empowerment and effectiveness of school boards in managing secondary schools in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Abstract

The article reports on a qualitative study on empowerment and effectiveness of school boards as community representatives in managing schools where the main objective was to examine the access of school boards on financial and human resources of the schools managed together with finding out the level of autonomy possessed by board members in influencing the schools’ decisions. Primary data were collected from 34 respondents and secondary data reviewed from materials on empowerment and education policy of Tanzania. It was found that, school boards have been provided with the opportunity to manage school affairs and so far, they have helped the schools to excel in managing student discipline and community mobilization in improving school infrastructure. Level of empowerment and effectiveness remains questionable due to number of challenges including low resource capability, lack of managerial skills and low autonomy levels. It is recommended that; review of school boards powers is needed to ensure the use of decentralised framework to influence matters at school level. There is a need to improve skills and capacities of Board members to achieve higher effectiveness.