Abstract:
The Govenment Tanzanian has been making various attempts to provide basic social services
to the pastoralists and other mobile communities. However, in pastoral community this
situation is limited to challenges that help they face in accessing secondary education. Despite
the government and NGOs efforts to address the issue, the problem the problem is still
persistent throughout the pastoralist areas. The overall objective of the study was to find out
the socio-ccultural constraints influencing access to secondary education among pastoralist
Maasai communities in Simanjiro district. A Cross-sectional research design was during data
collection. The study involved a sample of 75 respondents, composed of 35 parents, 35 children
(students) and 2 district education officers, 3 villages together with Maasai leaders. Data were
collected using questionnaire instruments, interviews, observation and documentary review.
The collected data were computed and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS) and summary information analysis. The findings show that pastoral communities face
myriad of challenges that are against accessing secondary education such as migratory nature
of Maasai, early marriage, genital mutilation, parents’ low support, early pregnancy and little
pressure everted from girls’ education and differences in life style and perception. Based on the
findings, it is recommended that creation of awareness on the importance of education to
pastoralist parents is crucial in order to boost the support on education. The government should
develop should develop policies, programmes and strategies to solve challenges facing
pastoralists in accessing secondary education in Simanjiro district.
