Impact of Government Initiatives on Gender Balance in The Provision of Education Services

Abstract

The objective of this study was to find out whether the enrolment in secondary and Institutions of higher education was in line with the Government's efforts to bring gender balance in the provision of education services in Tanzania. Specifically, the sought to: • Find out the causes of low enrolment of girls in secondary schools and higher education Institutions in Tanzania and its effect to the nation; • Assess the Impact of measures taken by the Government from 2000 to 2005; and • Come up with recommendations on how to improve the gender balance situation those academic institutions. A case study design was used in this study to enable the researcher understand the of study in a more detailed way by using a combination of various data collection techniques and tools. The study area was Moshi Municipality in Kilimanjaro region. The study cases were: Moshi University College of Co-operative and Business Studies (MUCCoBS), Mawenzi Secondary School, Moshi Technical Secondary School and J. K. Nyerere Secondary School. A sample of 33 people was picked for the study. They were drawn from the three secondary schools and one University College. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to arrive at this sample size. Stratified sampling was particularly used to get two different members of staff (headmaster and six teachers) from each secondary school. Thereafter, simple random sampling was used to draw a sample from the two groups. Primary data were mainly collected through interviews and administering questionnaires. Questionnaires were distributed to teachers and headmasters of the sampled secondary schools. Mainly, the respondents were required to assess and evaluate the impact Of Government initiatives in ensuring gender balance in the provision of education. On the other hand, secondary data were obtained from educational offices of Moshi Municipality and from files of each secondary school in the sample.