Socio-Cultural Constraints and Access to Secondary Education Among Pastoralist Maasai Communities

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.